Bizarre Misadventures
by PhantomGalaxy13
Summary: A boy wakes up in a Pokemon Center without his voice and memories. Despite that, and like many Amnesia prone folks before him, the boy sets off in an adventure to find his lost past. It's just too bad that he's accidentally going to burn Unova to the ground while trying to find them. (Game/Manga/Anime AU)
1. Ep 1: On Your Mark! Get set! Go!

"…_you've got all of that to come. You and Me… Time and Space… You watch us __**run**__!"_—Professor River Song.

* * *

In the uncertain future, the skies rained fire and destruction. Corpses filled the land while blood flowed into oceans. Towers weakened, collapsed, and nature became twisted, poisoned, and slowly rotted to death.

It was the end of days.

But this was not done by natural means.

No...

For the first, and oddly the last time, evil had triumphed over good. A powerful, malevolent force was allowing entropy to squeeze every last ounce of life left within the world.

However, the world's greatest heroes launched their final assault at the being that had caused this madness. They scaled and laid siege of the Villain's large, dark fort and eventually faced down with the being beyond that of legends.

"You…" One of the bravest of the heroes said with rising anger. "You caused all of this! You're about to pay for all your crimes you've done! The horrors you've committed! Any last words you bastard!?"

The great evil turned to them, originally having his back facing them. He oozed with amazing power that stiffened and tensed all the heroes and their partners into defensive positions.

He then responded to them with words that defied their mortal minds.

"_**Oops. Sorry about that, my bad.**_"

* * *

The true story began under the darkened celestial sea of night where a young girl, who has recently turned to the age of 10, gazed upon the vast cosmos with excitement in her heart as she sat on her roof top. Tomorrow, she would begin her epic journey all throughout Unova with her friends. She dreamt of winning the Unova league, being famous, catching rare Pokémon, meeting new or extraordinary people, but in her maiden heart, she held a slight wish to get closer to someone she held dear.

The innocent girl blushed at the thought of romance so quickly, and tried to force the shamelessly embarrassing thought deep within the locking of her brain. Her prayers slightly answered, and she spotted a bright shooting star racing across the infinite sea of space. She closed her eyes and wished for an amazing adventure, and for the safety of all her friends…

With that done, she resigns for the night, she headed back into her house through the window so that she may dream of sweet and pure dreams.

…

However…

The fireball racing among the infinite space was actually… a gigantic metal orb! Burning through the lower atmosphere, the orb came closer and closer to the ground due to the Universal Law of Gravity, coming faster and faster as it headed towards the earth.

**BOOM!**

Deep within the forests, the odd object crashed and blew away a large chunk of the surrounding area, leaving only a smoking crater scared upon a once lush green forest.

Pokémon, terrified from the falling piece of heaven, ran away from the danger long before the impact.

But as the smoke settled after the explosion, Pidoves, Patrats, Lillipups, and several Audinos, gather around the crater. What they saw next went beyond their simple comprehension: an amazingly complex sphere coated in the sleekest of white metal.

It seemed unharmed despite crashing with such extreme temperatures, but there were dents along some of the object, as if it was damaged from something else besides the crash. Strangest of all about the fallen item, was this odd beeping noise that the enigmatic sphere was making… it was becoming louder… and louder… suddenly a high pitch ding is heard.

The one colored machine… warps itself open, much like how a person would open their mouth…

All of the Pokémon fled in sheer terror at what they couldn't understand, but their primal instincts were all blaring out like sirens in their minds to '_Run, run before it's too late!_'

One Patrat; however, did not flee from the scene. A small piece of this Patrat's unique character seemed to be attracted to the enigma like a magnet. Because of this, he saw what had come out of the unknown oddity, and it forever changed the small creature's life…

"…_urry!"_

"_Seed…"_

"… _kid…"_

"… _necklace… ld…"_

"… _Good luck, kiddo... oh… and if you ever meet a guy named Looker…_"

[Chapter 1: The Curious Samurai.]

N, an alias for the King of Team Plasma, walked around town with several of his Pokémon, Purrlion, Gurdurr, and Tympole. He wished to view the state people were in order to better grasp how both human and Pokémon should be separated.

He viewed the environment around him, and secretly spited anyone within his glance that held or showed a Pokéball, a tool used for forcing his friends to fight for human's selfish desires. He mentally noted that cruel object would have to be forever banned if he was to free all of his friends.

Suddenly, loud cries snapped N out of his calculating spite. He saw and walked over to the edge of a crowd to hear what was going on.

"I don't believe you, a Patrat?! A Patrat came out of nowhere and attacked you!?" One man yelled.

"It didn't do that! It injured my daughter and her Pokémon, Lillipup!"

Murmurs where spoken among the crowd N noticed some whispers that irked him. "What a terrible Pokémon!/We should catch it and give it to some trainer to be disciplined."

N wanted to quickly reprimand them for saying such cruel and inconsiderate things so quickly, but what surprised N was that this Pokémon was claimed to have attacked a little girl. Even if he did say what he would think, no one would listen to him under being so blinded by their own fury towards what might have been a serious misunderstanding.

N noticed that the little girl in question was sitting on a crate in the corner while stroking her Lillipup, so he and his friends circled around the crowd and made their way to meet with her.

N approached the girl, who tensed up at his presence. He smiled gently to ease her, "Little girl," N stated as he kneeled down to meet with her. "Is it true that a Pokémon attacked you and this little one?" He said as he petted the Lillipup.

The girl spoke softly, "It was scary…"

N was surprised at the little girl's answer. he truly believed that there was some kind of misunderstanding , and that the Patrat in question was wrongly accused. However, he still believed something seemed off, so he asked the girl in question in a way that would calm her down "It's OK, little one; tell me about it and I will help you."

He did also mean that. N didn't like trainers, but that didn't mean he would be cruel to another human, let alone a scared little girl.

The young girl cuddled her Lillipup before explaining to N that the Pokémon that attacked her was an unusual Patrat. It was unusual because this Pokémon wielded a _weird_ _stick_. Then she told the story about how she met the Pokémon: while playing in the outskirts of town and nearby Route 1, the Patrat came out of nowhere and attacked her Lillipup, knocking him out in one hit. Afterward, the Pokémon in question glared daggers at the little girl. Out of pure fear, the girl picked up her Lillipup and ran away screaming and tripping as she did. When her father asked about what happened to her, she tensed up at remembering and didn't say a thing.

N figured out that was the reason why her father overreacted the way he did. He assumed the worst and wanted some way to mitigate what happened to his daughter, which was why he was lashing out now.

N sighed at this apparent misunderstanding, but he still wondered why the Patrat attacked her friend. N patted the head of the little girl, "You are a very brave girl… you know that?" He smiled softly, "Not many people would have gone back for their friend like you did… could you do me a favor?"

The little girl still cuddled her Pokémon like it was her own heart, but she loosened her grip and asked, "What is it?"

"Don't be a Pokémon trainer." N stated.

The girl tilted her head as she stared at N's eyes with confusion, "… Why?"

N frowned, "Your Pokémon will only get hurt more in the future."

The little girl let go of the little creature and placed it on her lap, she didn't seem to understand what N was trying to tell her, but she was trying to.

N thought this was acceptable for now, so he decided to find this violent Pokémon.

[Later.]

It wasn't too hard though, it came looking for him.

"Gur!" N's Gurdurr flew back from the impact of the attacker. N gritted his teeth; he was disappointed in his own mistakes. The _weird stick_ that the little girl described was actually a wooden sword that was the perfect size for the Pokémon. It looked masterfully crafted, which made N question where such a common Pokémon could use or even find something of that quality, but as he was trying to figure that out, the Patrat swiftly stuck Gurdurr with a clean hit into his neck.

In retaliation for his ally, N's Tympole blasted the Patrat with a water gun, but even though the attack hit the Patrat, he expertly regained his composure midair and landed on its feet. He pointed his blade towards them, ready for another attack.

N quickly saw his Furrlion and Gurdurr, who got back up from a direct hit, about to charge back and gang up against the Pokémon, but he quickly stopped them. "Stop! … It's my fault you got hurt, friend, I didn't foresee this event, and you got hurt because of my stupor, I am sorry," all three of his Pokémon calmed down, but still seemed ready to fight again if the odd Patrat made any move. N turned to the Pokémon and asked it, "Friend, why do you attack other fellow Pokémon so mercilessly?"

The Patrat took a fighting stance, tensing all of the others, but it spoke in chirps. "**… You claim to converse with me?**" Is what it asked.

N was rather surprised at the tone of this Pokémon's voice. All his life he could hear the voices of Pokémon, and he used this ability to the best of his use in his quest into freeing all Pokémon. However, when he heard this Pokémon's voice, he noticed some kind of strong spirit behind this Pokémon, and a trace of sorrow. The oddity of such uniqueness piqued his interest, but he had to first address the problem standing in front of him. "I can do more than converse, friend, I can talk to you and hold a proper conversation."

The Patrat finally eased its fighting stance, much to the relief of the four. Even though they were sure they would win a three vs. one, N was sure this Patrat would cause heavy damage even against such odds.

"**Is this the truth?**" The enigmatic Patrat asked.

N nodded, "Yes, can you tell me why you've been attacking defenseless Pokémon?"

"**I aimed only for Pokémon with human partners.**"

"Why?"

The Patrat turned his back on them, "**It is easier for me to show you than to speak of it, follow me,**" The Patrat wrapped a green vine around its waist, and used it like a belt to carry his wooden sword. Then he started walking deep into the forest.

N started walking, but he was momentarily stopped by his Purrlion, "**Lord N, are you truly following this barbarian?**"

"Please do not call me lord. But it's alright, this situation is very curious, which really intrigues me. Also, while there is danger, I don't think it would be from this Patrat." N replied then followed the Patrat with his other friends slowly following.

As they walked a few paces behind the Patrat, N increasingly became more… intrigued. "Friend, where did you find that wooden sword?"

The Patrat ignored him.

"**Why you! How dare you ignore N!**" Gurdurr snarled. However, N placed his hand in front of the large Pokémon and shook his head.

N was having a curious day. He had never seen a Patrat act almost… human. He believed that Pokémon were true and honest creatures, but this one seemed so strange. This had sparked an odd curiosity within the upcoming Pokémon savior.

The Patrat then stopped in front of a large tree. It sat on a large root of the big tree, crossing its legs, folding its arms, and closing its eyes. Then he said, "**Go to the other side of this tree.**" And he stayed still.

"**What!? Hey!?**" N's Pokémon seemed angered at the tone of the common Pokémon, but N stopped them once more and did what he was told.

N walked to the back of the tree and his eyes widened in surprise. There was an injured boy behind the tree! He was bruised all over with scars and blood seeping from his clothes! N quickly ran to him and noticed that there were several herbs over some of his wounds, showing that the Patrat had tried to actually help this boy. "Gurdurr! I need your help!"

It finally made sense to N. His deduction was that this mysterious Patrat was attacking trainer's Pokémon was because he needed a human's help in aiding this injured boy, but since he couldn't speak a human language, he hoped maybe a trainer would be interested in him and thus bait the trainer into finding this boy while trying to catch him. As N pieced it all together, he became even more confused and curious of such a smart and enigmatic Pokémon.

N had to be careful in moving the boy, even more so when he found out that he was almost mortally injured. The town wasn't faraway, but the only place that seemed to have the equipment to save this boy… was the Pokémon Center… a place that N spited as well as he did the Pokéball. But he had to bite the bullet on this one; he wasn't just going to let a person die like this. He didn't like humans, but he was never one to kill or let anyone die. The four got ready and started making their way back to town; however, when they were leaving, the Patrat had disappeared from his spot.

N then wondered what the story was behind this injured boy he was helping back to the center. It looked as if the boy had been through hell itself, with injuries painted all over him, but what caught his attention was a lovely designed, orbed gold and black pendant. It looked beautiful and very expensive; especially considering it was the size of a baby's fist. N shook his head, there was a time and place for everything, and now wasn't the time for questions.

Darkness…

Deep below the warmth of the sun, deeper than the darkest of oceans, there lies a fort, a fort so deeply hidden from the world that it might have been on a different planet all together. Yet this was no Pokélantis, its total opposite in fact, where the previously mention would represent ancient history, this other was almost fifty years ahead in their state of the art technology. Where one lasted centuries ago, this other seemed newly created despite being made longer than it seemed. Lastly, while one was deeply buried within the sea and devoid of all things not of sea life, there were many… life forms… in this almost other worldly fort.

Deep within the giant fort, a gathering of unknown but powerful people plan ahead for their mysterious future…

"… Gentlemen… what can I say about this? Other than sayingHOW THE ^%$# DID YOU SCREW THIS UP!?" A grand voice booms across a large room. Slamming on the table and causing the entire room to tremble.

A meek and scared little voice speaks out, "Apologizes 'Joe Goss'! Didn't know that em Code: Judicator was a no-good 'Aunt Nell' double agent for Interpol!"

A smug chuckle catches the attention of the room. "I told you all not to trust that guy."

"Com naw brudah, Warden, me be knowin ya nevah liked brudah Jude from dah time he beatin' ya like a boxin' bag." A thick accented man spoke out.

"Code: Warden, Code: Magus, we are still under the briefing over the loss of the Seed. Please remain silent."

"Thank you, Code: Inquisitor, but it's not just the Seed that got away. Judicator was able to download all of our project and files in a USB drive which he obviously hid with Subject 5. If Subject 5 somehow gets in contact with an Interpol agent or even the other organizations such as Team Rocket, Cipher, Plasma, or etcetera, then the result would be catastrophic," This mysterious speaker places his hand out, pointing to everyone in the room, "This is a Priority Omega mission: The capture of Subject 5, without alarming anyone of the public or underworld."

"S-sir?" Another lowly voice cries out. "What's stopping Subject 5 from simply telling anyone about what he knows?"

A loud sigh is heard in response of such a question, "… Do you even remember what planting the Seed does to a person?"

"… _Colors… bright colors… slowly, it starts to take form… there's a ceiling now white cream-like color, now with tiles all across. Move… slowly start to see everything… hear distant voices…"_

"…" Sight and thought is restored to this boy as he continued to look around: he found himself in a comfy bed wearing a patient robe. He looked over to his right to see a shelf with clothes all folded nicely and cleaned. On top of the clothes was a beautiful golden with black designed pendant.

The boy suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He heard someone's voice speaking to him from some far distant place. "_Here, take this necklace and hold on tight to it, you can do that, can't you kiddo?_" The pain stopped and the voice disappeared into memory… the boy stared into the pendant before taking the clothes.

[A little while later.]

The boy came out and stood in front of a mirror to better see his self: A young Caucasian teenager estimated to be around 5.2-5.3 feet tall, between the ages of 13-14 with short, black, and messy hair, and nice shade of amber tinted pupils. He wore a mysterious shirt: it looked like some kind of eight sided, red with white cross that stretch from the torso of the shirt to the back showing the same eight sided cross on a blue background. Mysteriously, the words 'Union Jack' crossed his mind. Over the shirt, the boy put on a black zipper hoddie jacket with streaks of white around the edges of the sleeves, hood and bottom. He wore normal blue jeans, and wore green with white trimmed rubber shoes. Lastly, he put the pendant around his neck and proceeded to leave the room.

As he did, a female wearing a nurse's costume with oddly shaped pink hair, yelped in surprise and immediately said, "H-hey! You weren't supposed to leave yet! Your injuries were so severe!"

The boy stared at the odd nurse. His eyes showed some kind of confusion mixed with pure surprise, as if her appearance simply bothered him somehow. "…?"

"If you are wondering where you are, then you're in Accumula Town. A young man brought you in terribly injured… but…" The nurse looked at the boy again, somehow his wounds were all healed, wounds that should have lasted at least a week. How was that possible? She swore she was one of the nurses who helped this boy into the emergency room just to stabilize his heart, heck they had to shock the boy several times just to keep him alive, but here he was standing as if he had never been hurt. Still, she had to continue the conversation, "That was a few hours ago… l-look, we need you to get back in bed to run proper tests. You can't leave yet!"

The boy slowly nodded his head.

The nurse was still stunned at his fast almost Pokémon like healing, but then she remembered something important, "Wait, now that you're awake, who are you and where do you come from?"

The boy stared blankly at her then placed his right hand on his head. He opened his mouth… but no sound came out. The boy opened his mouth again… still no noise… not even a random moan. The Boy looked mad, then he screamed—well he tried to. It just made everyone in the hallway stare at him awkwardly as he looked to be screaming at the top of his lungs without making a single sound. The boy panted after a while, but even his panting was almost muted.

The nurse looked at him curiously. "There did seem to be some records showing damaged vocal chords… but I didn't expect it to be by this much. Give me a sec…" The nurse quickly left, only to come back with a notepad and a pen. "You can use this. Write down your name, address, or phone number, so you can properly wait and rest here while your friends or family pick you up."

The boy received the two objects and looked at them in wonder… he then just stared into the empty white itemized tree for a while without any movement.

The Nurse seemed a bit distraught as she wondered why he couldn't simply write any of the information down. "Alright, that's it. You go back into your room and rest up, mister. You can't speak and you're too disoriented to even write! I'm surprised you were able to change and walk out here!" She pushed the younger boy back into his room. She made sure that he was back resting on his bed before leaving the door.

But the boy was not disoriented, he felt fine… sad, but fine. With her now gone, he sighed and wrote on the note pad the words he struggled with to write down earlier: "I don't remember anything."

A blank slate, nothing.

The boy tried his hardest, but all he could remember where proper facts like manners, basic math, basic languages, but what he could not remember was any memory that gave him an idea to who he was. Even when he tried to remember how he knew basic facts, but there was literally nothing.

Worry started creeping in the boy. He wondered just what was going on with him? He was mute, and now, he couldn't even remember his name—no… just now, there was some kind of spark. It was small, but a word finally formed in his head: Anto.

"_Anto? … Is… is that my name?"_ He wondered. He had little to go on, so for now, he would take the word as his own name.

He heard a small noise coming from the window. Anto took the note pad and the pen with him as he opened the window. He found a strange creature staring back at him… wait… his memories seemed to be slowly coming back… he did recognize this creature, it was a Pidove, a Pokémon.

"_Pokémon? … I do know that word… but… something feels… off…"_

Anto leaned forward, his head pounding as if there was something wrong with the word he had just remembered. However, he continued to lean forward, and his elbow slipped of the edge. This made him lose balance and forced his upper body to fall on the window ledge. He would have just gotten himself back up. However, Anto accidentally knocked the Pidove off the ledge. It flew back up, and it was quite peeved to say the least.

Then it started pecking the poor boy. Anto tried to shoo away the attacker, but he accidentally shifted his weight too much and fell off the window. After tackling the ground with his back, Anto groaned silently at the biological warnings his brain was sending him.

The Pidove, satisfied with his petty vengeance, smiled wickedly before flying away with prideful victory.

Anto got back up, but he noticed that he fell from the third floor, so his first instinct was to quickly call for help—but he couldn't speak… huh.

W-well, the next option to get back was to simply walk around back to the front of this red building… Huh? He landed in an alleyway? A dead end one? Anto looked behind him and noticed that the only exit seemed to go deeper into the town and away from where he was resting. Without much choice, Anto picked up his note pad and pen, and then walked out to the unfamiliar world…

"LOOK OUT ELITE FOUR, CHAMPION! I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

… And he just walked into someone screaming their lungs off. Anto cursed in his head as he felt a large ringing in his ears, he tried to see who did that, and was able to see a glimpse of kid wearing a hat, a moderately thick blue jacket, with black pants being dragged away by some girl wearing jean mini shorts, wearing a white shirt underneath a black vest.

Anto stared at the odd sight a few seconds while hearing the two people arguing to each other. He heard the words, "Black" and "White" being addresses to each other like they were names. This made Anto have another headache; why do those names feel so familiar?

"Hey! You!"

Anto looked over to see a gang of bikers looking very peeved and heading towards his direction.

One of them, presumably the leader, got of his bike and made his way to Anto. The leader with a huge frame, blue Mohawk, an eye patch on his right eye, and a personalized leather jacket. The intimidating man loomed over poor Anto. "Oi, what's the big idea messin with our valuable, peaceful Loiterin Time!"

"Yea man! I lik toe medi'ate be four we beat unsuspectin punks for all them shiny material possessions!" One of his posy members echoed with sophisticated dialect.

The large man then grabbed Anto by the collar. "Looks here boi, my crew an me like to ride wherever them wind be takin us, but we also like to catch zz's like any other mortal. Now, we hear that you'd like to challenge the elite four, now don't cha boi?"

Anto nervously shakes his head. He was not the one just screaming a little while ago, and these people were misunderstanding, he wanted to tell them they were wrong, but… he was mute…

Wow, he hoped things like that wouldn't happen often. Right? ... Right!?

"Naw… don't be nervous boi," The leader told him as he wrapped his muscular, anaconda like arms around Anto's shoulders, "Ya caught us in a… neighborly mood," The rest of his gang members chuckled along with the leader. Anto nervously smiled with all of them. "So tell ya what, just apologize, and we'll call it a day."

Anto felt relived and tried to move his hands with the notepad, but the leader stopped him. "Where are you going boi? Just say it out nice and loud like we're ya own mother…" The leader had mistaken his movement in his hand as an attempt to leave, so he stopped him. Suddenly, things weren't looking so good…

Now, a calm person would use their amazing acute mental skills to get out of such a predicament without a scratch, but Anto was not that person. He started to sweat when the leader wasn't letting him write anything down.

"Come on boi…" The leader's voice became deeper, more hostile. "Don't tell me ya got too much pride to apologize…"

Anto was now sweating bullets. In desperation, he tried opening his mouth… but his heart sank like the Titanic when no words came out again. It really didn't help the poor guy's situation when the leader loosened his grip and started glaring at him. "… Are you makin fun of us?" The way he spoke was like the clam before the storm.

Anto nervously shook his head again, but the leader once more grabbed his collar and lifted him into the air, dropping his notepad. "Ooohhh, I sees, ya thinks ya too good for us don't cha?" Anto furiously shakes his head. "You thinks cause you got a future ahead of you that ya aint gonna be like us huh?!" Again, Anto fruitless shakes his head as if his life depends. He spots his gang crunching their knuckles, bringing out blunt objects, and—taking out a freaking chainsaw!? Correction: his life DOES depend on them understanding him.

The leader screamed at him and shook him violently. "Well let me tell yous somthin! You think that just because we don't have a high school diploma we won't amount to nothing! But we showed them! We showed those silent, disappointing, scornful, cold shoulder treatments from our parents… *sniff* that we could make our way in the world! *Sniff* *Sob* He'll regret selling my teddy bear collection…guh… " The leader's voice began to crack after he mentioned his father. His eyes suddenly became watery and his nose started running. "*Sniff*… *Sob*I-I *Sniff* told him I never wanted to be a mime! … Prf… WAA! DADDY!" Then the leader put Anto down and started sobbing madly. He hugged Anto, whose eyes widened in sheer shock, and stared sobbing on his shoulder… and drooling, and blowing his nose on to his jacket…

Anto questioningly looked over to the other members: they also were suddenly overwhelmed by memories of their loved ones, and started breaking down as well. Since the leader was still hugging him and contaminating his right shoulder, Anto shrugged at the Deus Ex Machina, and just hugged the leader back while patting his head to say it was OK. (Ignoring the smell and icky feeling near his head.)

After a few more disgusting seconds of feeling almost every tear, drool, and snot being poured heavily on Anto's right shoulder, the man finally did let go. Ignoring his completely tainted shoulder, Anto, thinking it was alright, got his note pad out and wrote, "You know it's still not too late to go back to school, and prove them all wrong."

The leader read the words, still wiping away some of his snot. "Y-ya think so? B-but what could we possibly do? We ain't smart…"

Anto scribbled more words then he showed what he wrote down. "Look at all of your bikes: they all looks so well maintained! You could sign up to study being mechanics!"

"Y-yeah! There's no one who loves Pokémon and Bikes as much as we do!" The leader cheers. He looks back at his crew who also are sharing the same hopeful smiles. "Ya know what?! Let's do it bros!"

"YA BOSS!" They all cheered. Anto nodded, proud at the odd event he helped.

"But we're going to need some money. School ain't cheep," Then all of the Bikers stared back at Anto… and his very expensive looking necklace.

Anto looked at them, then back his necklace. He looked at them, then back to his necklace… he didn't like the way they were all staring at the probably priceless artifact after they had just mentioned they needed funding.

A few silent, awkward seconds passed by before Anto bolted as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

The leader quickly got back to his motorcycle and made it roar to life. Then he… put an eerily familiar looking Sengoku Era helmet on his head before shouting, "Let's get'em bros! **HERE WE GO**!" He yelled as he ran ahead with his posy cheering wildly behind him.

Anto ran for dear life, but he could not out run a motorized bike even in such a closed alleyway area. To his dismay, the leader was catching up on him and was about to grab him.

SLAM!

"KRF!"

Out of nowhere, a Patrat with a wooden sword kicked the leader in the face and knocked him off his bike. Anto's eyes widened as he avoided the sliding bike and looked to see his rescuer.

The Patrat faced the other gang members with his back facing Anto. "**I check to see how you're doing, and once more, you find yourself in a dangerous situation?**"

Anto tilted his head, he knew this Pokémon was a Patrat, but… could they always speak?

"OI! You lousy little rat, you kicked our leader in the face!" One of the gang members screamed. Then they all took out their own Pokéballs to bring out several of their own tough and gritty looking Pokémon.

Anto quickly panicked, but he saw the Patrat ready his blade, ready to stand and fight what obviously was a losing battle.

"Blitzle, use Spark!" One of the members called out to his Pokémon.

Anto showed a very confused look when he heard the Pokémon responded in a human language.

"**Imma run you over, little man!**" The thunderbolt Pokémon complied and quickly dashed toward the Patrat.

Anto snapped out of his stupor and panicked, but he saw the Patrat stiffen its stance, pull its blade beneath its waist, and then slashed the chin of Blitzle in an upward motion, which not only cancelled the attack, but sent the mightier Pokémon flying back to the gang members.

"What in blazes?!" some yelled.

Anto quickly looked around, and saw that the motorcycle of the leader was still ahead of him. His mind suddenly sent him information that told him how to drive a bike. "_Wait… I know how to drive a motorbike?_" he thought.

He turned back and saw all the gang members gritting their teeth and reading to send all of their other Pokémon right for his momentary defender. A tricky idea formed in Anto's head and he decided to go with it: he quickly pushed the motorbike back up, and then he grabbed the Patrat, and jumped back on the bike.

The little bladesman was taken by surprise. "**What are you—**"

Anto revved up the engine, and to his relief, it stared. He was thankfully tall enough to steep on the gas and stomped on it to get away from his pursuers. In his mind he answered the Pokémon's question to himself. "_I'm all for the never give up spirit, but I always prefer the whole live to fight another day troupe far better!_" The boy thought in his head, knowing he was unable to answer.

Under his arm, the Patrat seemed shocked, "**H-how did you do that? I had just completely understood you without you speaking, how did you accomplish that?!**"

Anto looked back at the Patrat staring back at him with his large hypnotic eyes. "_Wait… can you hear my thoughts?_"

The Patrat's eyes widened, "**Your thoughts? Are you related to a Psychic?**"

"_What, no, at least I don't remember being… I don't remember anything before waking up in a hospital… An-anyway, you can hear my thoughts!?_"

"**I assume so… but you don't remember anything prior to that odd spherical device?**"

Anto's eyes widened, "… _What?_" Did this Patrat know who he was?

"Air Slash!"

Anto reacted to the call quickly and swerved the bike to his right. He avoided a powerful shockwave of air that sliced the area where they once were.

"You're dead meat, thief! Swoobat, Air Slash again!" Another one of the gang members ironically cried out. The Pokémon complied and shoot another powerful gust of wind. Anto moved the bike again, but it cut off the very edge of the handle.

"Ha!" They cheered.

"**Head to higher ground; take a right turn here and don't stop!**" Patrat said before taking his sword and making his way behind Anto. As soon as they turned, Patrat jumped off the bike and quickly started running on the wall they just turned from. Then, when all of the pursuers had just turned, they only saw Patrat pouncing right for the Swoobat! Patrat slammed its feet into his enemy's eye and he kicked the enemy flier right into the face of another gang member, forcing him to lose control and fall off his bike, which slid on the ground behind them. Using the momentum of the kick, Patrat launched himself forward to land on the handles of the gang member in the lead of the chase.

The person in the lead got scared with Patrat's surprisingly intimidating glare. Patrat then shoved the rider out of his biker by hitting him in stomach with his blade.

The bikers immediately braked and turned away to avoid running over their ally. Angry, one of them refused to let them get away, "Swoobat, Gust on the bike!"

"**Take this, ya jumpy circus freak!**" The injured Swoobat cried and sent the machine flying high into the air. In mid air, Patrat was not fazed in the slightest: he quickly spotted Anto, and launched himself towards him using the bike.

With a roll, Patrat canceled the potentially damaging momentum and landed on the roof ahead of Anto. He timed his jump and ended back behind Anto, sitting down as if nothing happened.

"_Wow…_" Anto thought, seeing only glimpses of the smackdown from his rearview mirror. "_I_ _may have amnesia, but I clearly don't remember Patrats being badass… at all._"

"… **I don't know what you're talking about… anyone can do this with the proper training…**" Patrat explained while glancing in a random direction.

"_I call_ _Bull!_" Anto looked back at him, mentally shouting. He started to think he was hiding something.

The Patrat returned his look with a deadpan gaze. "**By the way, you should probably pay attention to where you're heading. I think we're about to run off a cliff.**"

Anto looked ahead and gaped in shock because Patrat was right! He was still driving upward, and he had just reached a lookout area that he was about to jump off!

Crash!

The two flew off with big air, Anto yelled at the top of his lungs… only for no sound to still come out.

If Anto was learning anything today, it was that being mute was far more disadvantageous than it sounds.

[Meanwhile…]

_"_That's right! We must liberate the Pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and Pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and Pokémon... and the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention." A preacher named Ghetsis finished his speech in front of a mass of collective people. He made his way to walk off the stage, but suddenly he heard people gasp, shout and point behind him.

"Sir, lookout!" one of his uniformed men shouted.

Curious, Ghetsis turned around—only to see what the close up of a motor bike wheel looks like.

Suddenly, a high-pitched squeaking noise is heard, followed by a loud thud, and splutter of liquid spurting out of something.

Anto made the bike land properly and he swerved to a stop right after the stage. He looked horrified after running over someone's face.

"Lord Ghetsis!" His men cried as they all checked the status of their lead preacher. Some of them pointed at Anto and his Patrat, "YOU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

Anto, overwhelmed with emotions, just shrugged his shoulders as his brain tried to process everything that was happening to him ever since he woke up.

"After him!" They cried. Anto immediately tried the bike, but in the name of moon, it had run out of gas. Anto jumped off and ran away from the mob, with the sword wielding Pokémon not too far behind.

"**Hmm…**" It chirped solemnly. "**I believe I'm starting to see how I found you injured in the first place and why you lost your memory…**"

"_Shut it… Ta… Takezo!_"

"… **Excuse me?**" The little creature asked as he raised it's brow.

Anto ducked from a being doused with a Water Gun move before answering back. "_I'm not going to call you Patrat all the time, but for some reason, when I tried to give you a nickname this word came out. I think it's the name of a famous Samurai or something… kind of makes sense since you wield that wooden sword of yours like one._"

Patrat, or now Takezo, looked stunned as he repeated the one word that seemed to hypnotize him, "**… Samurai…**"

Meanwhile, with all of the people who were left behind or who did not join the group that was hounding down on Anto and Takezo, there was a person there who starred in great disbelief at not _what_ happened, but _who_ had caused it.

"It's the boy… and the Patrat?" N stated in utter confusion since he swore he left the boy at the Pokémon center merely hours ago.

For now, the future savior would have to prepare solely for liberation, but he would never forget the string of odd incidents that seemed so perfectly connected to each other that happened on this day.

Takezo and Anto continued to run away from the mob of oddly dressed weirdos. Little did they know that this was the beginning of their great and destructive chase across Unova.

[Elsewhere…]

In a faraway region, deep beneath Mt. Quena, two powerful Pokémon sense a disturbance in the for—err… I mean they sense something is wrong.

"**Something… is in the air… something not… truly evil… but… dangerous… I am heading off and following this feeling. If we can sense it all the way here, then others must have sensed it as well. Whatever this foreboding feeling is, we can stop it. I am sure of it. However, I cannot shake this feeling that this will not go well.**"

* * *

**{Author Notes/Key}**

**Hello and welcome to the story. This is a revamped and re edited version of Chapter one of (story name here). Mostly just some adding and deleting of words in some sentences and trying to fix small edit mistakes.**

**Just a quick note from the first time I put Author notes in this chapter: If you think Takezo the Patrat is too OP don't worry, he's only skilled for now, but he get balanced out as the adventures progress. Besides, how may Patrats can you say are OP in the vast amount of Pokémon stories here?**

**As you can see there are many forms of text, which I will try to explain if you've gotten this far.**

Normal Text: Mostly narrative.

**Bold text: Usually signifies when Pokémon talk or when I use Author Notes. Sometimes this will be used for a heavy emphasis on certain words.**

_Italicized text: These are some special types of conversations. Sometimes these will be used to highlight certain words that people will be saying with emphasis but to a lesser extent than bolded words._

Underlined text: Basically sometimes will be used to described writing and signs, but was dropped in later chapters and used for different form of emphasis.

_Italicized and Underlined text: these are kind of special. Sometimes they represent memories, other times they are a hint to something else…_

(): Parenthesis may come up sometimes during the story. These will signal people talking during someone else's conversations or will add as an extra foot note that adds more information but doesn't add to much to the plot.

[]/{}: these signify a change in scenes or end of chapter. Has some words in it to hint you in place.

**So thanks for reading this far. Hope you all enjoy the story.**


	2. Ep 2: Strange Company

Pokémon: Anto's Bizzare Adventure Chapter 2: There are absolutely no hidden messages, at all.

* * *

_"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."_

_-Mark Twain_

* * *

Deep beneath the fierce and dark currents of the sea, we return to the base of where powerful people be.

Within the halls of science that echoed with bright lights, the great leaders plotted and planned in order to restore their weakened might.

Before, the room was once filled with all who needed to be. Now, excluding the leader, there were only three...

"… Has anyone seen the news lately?" The leader started off the small meeting.

"Err… which one, sir? Is it the Orre region opening up a new Phenac Colosseum… right?" Warden asked.

The leader shook his head, "… Check this paper in the Unova Daily. It's fresh off the press…" He tossed a paper to the middle of the table. A light suddenly appeared below, and projected a larger holographic image of the front page to the entire room.

The headline for today's post was a picture of a young adolescence with his tongue sticking out like some heavy metal guitarist while his entire face looked heavily constipated. Despite his face being like that, the boy was riding on a motorcycle that was about to land on a very well dressed preacher's face.

The headline read as followed: "Kleptomaniac motor biker crushes Team Plasma Preacher from the sky." ("Hrgplshmngrpff!"— Ghetsis quote coming out with full body cast: interviewed right after coming out of emergency treatment. PS. our reporters are very tenacious.)

"… You all realize the two people in this headline is, right?"

"O, man! I be knowin, who he is! He be that Ghetsi Man that we be sellin high computah software too." Majus answers.

Warden takes another look at the boy in the picture. "Hey, isn't that constipated brat, Subject 5?"

"Good, you three now know where you're going."

"We are heading to Unova, sir?" Inquisitor asked.

The Boss looked over to Inquisitor, "Yes, and be sure to catch him quickly. We did not expect him to make such radical 'changes' in our plan without him purposely knowing."

"Since when is running over some over the top, pious preacher with a stolen motorbike considered a 'radical change'?" Warden wondered out loud.

"Since he's now attracted public attention before we even tracked his escape pod. At this rate, he may either die, or get arrested by the police: both equally unacceptable to our plan. You have fifteen minutes to pack."

The three commanders seemed confused at what he said. Warden pointed out the reason why by asking this to his boss, "Doesn't the plane leave in ten minutes though?"

The leader simply stated in a calm manner, "Then you don't want to know what happens if you continue packing and miss it, don't you?"

At that, all three commanders vanished in an instant.

The leader then stood up from his chair and paged someone over a telecom. "Simone, get me Yelnats, I need him to go over our new contract with Team Snagem, there are some things we need to change in that. I'm also going to have to talk with Gonzap... Oh, sorry, wrong button... yes... congratulations on your eight kid and third marriage, Larry. By the way, your fired."

* * *

Takezo and Anto were gasping for breath under a tree at some random part of Route 2. It was already late at night and the unlikely duo had finally just escaped the presumed cult called Team Plasma.

"_We finally lost those beaver-dam cultists…_"

Takezo turned his head at the boy, curious of an odd word he heard, "**… Beaver?**"

Anto realized his choice of vocabulary, and rubbed the back of his head in confusion. "_Huh… I guess that's some kind of expression where I'm from… or was from…_" Anto slumped into the tree and looked to the sky: it was absolutely beautiful. The stars where as bright as gold and the night sky were painted in a cosmic blue that blended among space like art on a canvas. "_Wow…_" Anto gaped. "_I've never seen such a beautiful night sky before…_"

Takezo tilted his head in confusion at what Anto had just said. "**Excuse me? The night sky is always as is.**"

Anto shrugged and continued to stare at the magnificent sight before him, something told him that the night sky was not always 'as is' as his little friend told him."_Oh right, Takezo, Thank you for helping me earlier today. I could have been in the hospital again, or worse, the morgue!_"

Takezo nodded, still a little surprised at being called a name despite not technically being owned by this boy. "**It is of little consequence. However,** **you are aware that giving me another name implies that I belong to you, correct? Even though you are not technically my current trainer.**"

Anto shrugged, "_… So you don't like the name?_"

Takezo shook his head. "**On the contrary, I find it very… exotic and filled with mystic knowledge. I may actually start taking that as my true name. But still, I wonder how you can come with such a word since your memories have been lost.**"

Anto's eyes snapped open, as if he remembered something, "_Right! You said you actually saw me before! What was I like!?_"

"… **Hmm… it is not a very long story, but it is a very curious one…**" Takezo regaled the tale of how an almost otherworldly device fell from the sky and landed near the forest he was currently staying in. Then he told the boy about finding him coming out of the orb, mortally wounded. In a desperate attempt, Takezo had begged for the assistance of several Audinos who gave him herbs to help slow the wounds.

But it still wasn't enough, Takezo explained that the best person to heal a human were other humans. Since he couldn't speak any human language, Takezo told the boy that he had come up with the idea of attacking trainers in an attempt to have them tempted to catch him. In a sense, it did work, but not the way he expected. Takezo described one trainer who brought him to the medical facility, someone who also had the ability to speak and hear Pokémon, but on an oral level.

Anto stopped Takezo there. He was surprised to hear that there was also someone there who could also understand Pokémon, but Takezo believed they were different. This was because his ability seemed natural, where as Anto's seemed very out of place, considering his muted voice and amnesia. Still, the way Takezo described the trainer made Anto feel as if he knew him… or maybe even glanced at him as he was running away from a certain crowd… but where?

"**But during the whole period, I was very curious of who you were. So after the trainer had his Pokémon bring you to safety, I waited a bit before heading into the city myself. There, I found you running for your life, and the rest is now held within memory.**" Takezo finished disclosing his tale.

"_Wait, what happened to that machine I fell out off?_"

"**That was the reason I did not follow the trainer or you immediately after you went towards your human medical centers. I quickly went to the crash site, only to find the machine to have disappeared completely, leaving only the damage in the forest where it once was.**"

"_Wow… what the heck happened to me?_" Anto wondered as he stared back into the sky.

Takezo nodded, "**At this point, anything can be said about you and remain true, but…**" Takezo also looked up at the sky."**It is getting late. We will plan more about this tomorrow.**"

"_Wait? You're going to help me with my memories? I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but you don't need to help me so much. Like you said, I'm not your trainer and I don't want to force you to do something you don't want._"

Takezo looked back at the boy, surprised at what he had just said. He stared at the boy's amber eyes before silently chuckling. "**I suppose you're right… but as it stands, the only thing of interest in my life is training my blade. Not to mention, I did** **promise my**…" Takezo shook his head quiclky before returning back to his topic, "**Boy, do you at least remember your name?**"

"_The only thing that comes to mind is Anto_."

"**Then, Anto, we shall be helping each other. I will assist in helping you regain your memories, while you assist in keeping me company. This shall be our pact. … It has been a while since I had a companion…"**

Anto looked at the Pokémon. Besides him, there was also something mysterious about this one, but he choose to keep it a secret. Curious, Anto asked Takezo a question,_** "**__Weren't you with other Patrats?_"

Takezo held his wooden blade and fiddled with it as he answered, "**Not in the beginning, and later on in my life. They just seemed... uninteresting to me. But it's a story for another time, go to sleep.**" Takezo dismissed the topic at a quick speed, almost cold and spiteful at the mention of other Patrats.

Anto wondered about that, but he saw Takezo cuddled into the roots of the tree, preparing himself to sleep.

Secretly, Takezo noted to himself that although they did not know much about Anto's past, his character seemed to at least be quite caring to put another's well being before his own, much like a gentle but melancholic memory.

Takezo quickly fell asleep. Anto looked up to the sky one last time before also hitting the hay.

* * *

The wind blew softly… the sand beneath the feet were smooth and very hot… the waves washed back and forth in the most soothing sounds… palm trees stood tall and gave relaxing shade to anyone in need…

Here, Anto stood, confused and bamboozled under a beach sun.

Something felt off with this place, and not just the fact that he was sure he was nowhere near a beach before he slept, yet Anto didn't understand what it was going on. He looked around for Takezo, or anyone for that matter, but found only himself.

After closer inspection, he found himself on a small deserted island.

"… How did I—what? I can talk again?!" Anto screamed in his own voice. He was very surprised that he could talk again. However, even though he was glad to talk, he still had no idea what was going on. Actually, he was becoming more and more confused. "… Hey! Takezo! Where are you!?" He cried out.

The only sounds that can be heard are the winds blowing softly and the waves coming back and forth.

"… This is so weird… huh?" Something caught Anto's attention: some kind of… screen? Floating above the beach shore?

Anto walked slowly towards it, and found something very odd written on it:

Takezo/Patrat. Lv. 10+ (*Limit Surpassed*)

Ability: Analytic (increases power of attacks by 30%)

HP: 62 (+3)

*Attack: 34 (+3—+4)

Defense: 28 (+2—+4)

Special Attack: 11 (+0—+1)

Special Defense: 26 (+2—+4)

**Speed: 42 (+4—+5)

Moves: Cut, Swords Dance, Assurance.

The more he looked at it, the more it made less sense. It looked like some kind of stat board of Takezo. And something felt… strangely familiar about the set up. Had he seen something like this before?

There was also something that was bugging him: Level 10+? Limit Surpassed? What did those mean? Did it have anything to do with Takezo's surprising battle efficiency?

Suddenly, Anto heard sounds of something coming closer to him. He looked behind him and noticed some huge blob of purple that slowly taking some kind of four legged form… it started to take the form of a Pokémon… a Sawsbuck, if his memory was still right. Wait, his head was starting to hurt… The thing looked like a Sawsbuck, but… it was something different?

... What?

Regardless, the odd Sawsbuck simply stared right at Anto. Anto was beyond confused; what was going on?

"Confusing isn't it?"

"What? Who said that?_"_ Anto cried out as he looked around. In fact, that voice a while ago sounded a lot like… himself? But how? He wasn't even talking then, and it didn't feel like it came from the blob though.

Thinking of it, Anto looked back at the odd shaped blob, but it suddenly rushed for Anto and covered his vision in pure black. The last thing he saw was darkness followed by a bloodshot eye glaring fiercely at him.

* * *

Anto jumped out of the trunk gasping for breath. He found himself silent again as his panting seemed to make no sound. He quickly looked around the area and found himself under the same tree he had slept in last night. Anto moved his hand to his head and wondered if those odd events before was a very obscure dream.

*Growl…*

Well, at least his stomach could still make sounds. Anto looked toward to where Takezo was, but he saw that the Patrat was not in his sleeping area.

"_Takezo? Where are you?_" Anto thought in his mind, but there was no response. Anto got up and started walking around the forest he slept on. As he did, he looked at his clothes: there was still that dried stink on his right shoulder, dried sweat from all that running yesterday, and now there was dirt, mud and leaves all over him.

Anto wished he was at least near a Pokémon Center, because if he recalled correctly, they allow free service to trainers.

… But he technically wasn't a trainer… well… at least right now. But Anto thought about it a bit more, he had a lot of odd basic knowledge to his mind: He knew about half a dozen region's names and Pokémon starting from Kanto to Kalos. He had some odd knowledge about all of their legendary Pokémon as well though he had no re collection where he had read such odd information about them or how he knew those things.

Perhaps he was a trainer then? He did see an odd figure of a Sawsbuck in his dream, so did he have one before whatever event made him lose his memory?

Anto's thoughts were distracted as he realized he heard the sound of running water. He had wandered near a pool with a waterfall falling from a cliff.

"**Oh, you have awakened, good morning, Anto.**"

Anto looked back and saw Takezo behind him holding a bunch of berries. "**I had searched around, and fortunately, I had stumbled upon a wide variety of berries. Would you care—**" Takezo suddenly sniffed the air. He sniffed the air several times before returning his gaze back to Anto "**… Anto… forgive the expression, but you stink. Literally.**"

"_Umm… yeah… I really need to clean my clothes and myself…_"

Takezo dropped the berries into the ground and pointed to the waterfall."**Do it here… now.**" He chirped.

"_Wh-what!?_"

"**I have a sharper sense of smell than you, but I am not going to torture my nose any longer by letting you stay in that stench for the rest of the day,**" Takezo folded his arms like a strict father."**So strip.**"

"_C-can't I just wait till we get to a Pokémon Center!?_" Anto shook his hands in front of him. He had a huge blush on his face.

Takezo tapped his foot impatiently. He glared at his human ally while his own nose started to twicth. "**Alright, let us try to compromise: either you go and shower now, or I strip you myself and force you to wash yourself.**"

"_B-but what about my clothes?_" Anto said as he slowly gripped his jacket.

Takezo picked up a few berries, "**Do not worry, I have experience with human clothes before.**"

"_Y-you what?_" Anto thought, misinterpreting those words.

"**Strip faster!**"

* * *

Anto stared at his new freshly smelling clothes as he held an oran berry. "_How the heck did you know that a chesto berry would dry my clothes so quickly, and make them smell good?_"

"**Allow me to simply state that I learned some rather unorthodox methods over the course of my life... and just so you know, I am not as old as you assume I am.**" Takezo chirped as he ate a pecha berry.

"_What, you're not like some kind of super old and wise sage dude?_"

"**Anto, I am only sixteen years old. That's fairly young considering human lifespans.**"

Anto stopped for one minute as his eyes widened in sheer shock. He was just trying to wrap around the concept of his friend, his approximately 1'10 foot tall friend, was older than him by only a few years.

"_Six...Sixteen!? I assumed I'm at most fourteen years old! But you're older than me by only two to three years!?_"

Takezo smiled mischievously, "**Who knows? But if your are still wondering: I shall not answer any questions that tie to my life as of yet.**"

"... _Could you be anymore enigmatic?_" Anto complained as he looked to his companion.

"**You must spend more time with me in order to learn my secrets Anto.**" Tekezo explained with a slight tease in his tone.

"_Well I can't tell you my secrets if I wanted to, because I forgot._" Anto responded as he kicked a small rock of the dirt road they were walking down.

Takezo's playful torment died down quickly, he gave Anto a determined look before saying, "**And I am helping you remember those secrets. Have faith Anto.**"

Anto felt relieved from hearing that. He truly was grateful for Takezo helping him, and with someone like him who could handle several other Pokémon with ease, he would get his memories back for sure.

"Hold it!" A voice called out and stopped the two. Then they stared in shock at an ugly sight: there was this large fat man dressed in clothes clearly designed for younger people, like a cap and blue jeans. Beside him was some odd looking Pachirisu dressed up as a Pikachu with poorly designed cardboard and finger paint.

"**Why… are you humans so weird?**" Takezo sweat dropped.

"_No comment._" Anto replied, suddenly wishing that he he became an amnesiac after seeing the sight of the man's bellybutton pointing outward for a few seconds.

The big guy struck a pose that made his stomach jiggle and shake more than it should. "I, Ash Ketchum challenge you to a Pokémon battle with my trusty Pikachu!" He cried out.

"(Pachirisu!) **I am clearly not wearing a cardboard box!**" His Pokémon stated as he fixed its head.

"**You bring shame onto our entire Pokémon species.**" Takezo dryly stated.

"_Ash Ketchum? … That name sounds familiar…_" Anto put his hand on his chin.

"**I once saw a televised cast of the True Ash Ketchum in a Pokémon battle. He was quite honorable, but this poor man… once more, how shameful of them**." Takezo shook his head in disappointment.

"Hey, battle me, cause I'm Ash Ketchum!" The wannabe screamed.

Anto sighed and took out his note pad. He wrote on it and showed what he had written down: "I'm mute, I can't battle you. Two: You're NOT Ash Ketchum."

The man gasped, "How dare you! Come on Pikachu, let's show him our bond that has lasted for a long, but oddly vague, amount of time!" He shouted out for some reason. "Use Thunderbolt on his Patrat!"

"**Take this!**" The Pachirisu cried, launching a powerful bolt towards the two. Anto and Takezo separated and avoided the attack.

Takezo drew his blade and faced the sad copy. "**I truly did not wish to fight, but since it has come to this… prepare yourself for dishonoring another's name!**"

"Thunderbolt again!" The copy cried. Immediately, another powerful attack was launched. Takezo avoided the attack and rushed for the Pokémon impersonator. However, the Pachirisu avoided Takezo's slash by jumping over him.

"Now Thunderbolt!" The poser cried out. Mid air, the pale Pikachu copy blasted another bolt towards Takezo and it made contact. The Blast shocked Takezo and sent him flying.

"_Takezo!_" Anto cried.

The Patrat gritted his teeth, "**It appears I have underestimated my enemy…**"

Anto glanced over to the Pachirisu then suddenly, a flood of information hit Anto's mind. "_T-Takezo, Pachirsu, or other electric Pokémon in general, are faster by default! Close combat for you is near impossible in this situation. If this keeps up, you'll be knocked out!_"

"**Then what must I do then!?**" Takezo cried out as he avoided another Thunderbolt.

"_I have an idea… it's kind of crude, but if you trust me, it should work!_"

"… **I trust you, Anto.**" Takezo said.

"_Of course ya do, it's kind of easy to trust an amnesiac…_" Anto responded with a smirk,"_Here's the plan!_"

The two copy cats looked in confusion at the other two. It almost seemed like the Patrat was the one giving the orders and the human was simply nodding his head. "Is he really mute?" The man asked, but his 'Pikachu' just shrugged its shoulders.

The two snapped out of it when the enemy Patrat took a stance ready to attack, but it surprised them when the Patrat threw its sword high to the sky! The two people looked up at the blade, but when they looked back down, Patrat was already at close range!

"_Cut! Follow it up with Assurance, then you know what to do!_" Anto cried out in his head.

With a karate chop from his right hand, Takezo slashed at the Pikachu copy vertically, and cut off the stupid cardboard box it was wearing. Then he followed right after that attack by using the same right palm to turn dark purple then slamming it upward into his opponent's chin, which sent him flying. But Takezo reacted quickly and grabbed the tail of the electric squirrel, and threw him backwards.

"AAH! Pachi! I-I mean Pikachu! No!" The copycat cried out.

The Pachirisu slowly got back up. "**I-I've been through worse…**"

His trainer looked angry. "Why you! Pikachu, use Discharge!"

The little creature quickly exploded with a large area of effect attack that struck Takezo and sent him flying.

"_Takezo, are you alright?!_" Anto cried out, worried for his friend.

Takezo slowly got back up as well, but electricity sparked all around him and greatly impaired his movements.

"HA! You're Pokémon is Paralyzed!" The trainer imposter cried. "Now, Pikachu, finish it with Thunderbolt!"

The poorly colored Pokémon gathered energy for its attack. "**Not so tough now, are ya!?**"

However, both imposters looked confused to see a calm smile on both of their opponents. Before Pachirisu could launch its finishing move, Anto pointed up to the sky while Takezo said to Pacirisu, "**You did not pay attention: I would not stand there if I were you.**"

The two wondered what they meant, but a shadow caught their attention. When they both looked up, they immediately saw the sword quickly fall down and smack Pachirisu square in the head! The blow was the final hit needed to knock out the electric Pokémon.

"No! We lost! But how!? We beat all of those other trainers!" The guy cried out as he dropped to his knees.

The poser suddenly felt a light stinging pain at the back of his head and he looked back up to see Anto had just slapped his head with a note pad. Anto also showed something written on that notepad: "Quit trying to copy him, and tell me who you really are."

The guy looked over to his Pokémon, where he saw Takezo give him a sitrus berry, while he himself was holding a cherri berry.

"**You fight well, why really on another's fame when you clearly can hold out on your own?**" Takezo asked the Pachirisu.

The man sighed in defeat. It took him a minute but he finally told Anto who he was, "My... my real name is Harold. It's always my dream to be famous because… I-I want to be a guy who his own Pokémon can be proud of, like that Ash kid! … And not some fat, old loser like me…"

The Pachirisu answered Takezo, "**Who the heck cares for a nobody like me? If I was that Pikachu guy, maybe people would laugh less at Harold for having such a 'girly' Pokémon…**"

"**And who told you that you were girly?**" Takezo asked.

"**Other trainer's Pokémon…**"

Anto and Takezo looked at each other. "_Takezo… did you understand this man?_" Anto asked, being the only one to understand both conversations.

"**No, as I said before, I don't understand any human language. I doubt this Pokémon does as well.**"

"_Hunh…_" Anto started scribbling something down on his note pad. It looked to be long since he was writing it for a while, but then he showed his message to Harold: "Harold, don't let the insults of other people bring you down. I'm sure your real Pokémon, Pachi, is proud of you for who you are regardless of what other people say, but you need to trust in yourself first." Then Anto turned to the Pachirisu. "_Hey._" He directed his inner voice to him.

The Pachirisu jumped in surprise. "**Whoa! Are you a psychic!?**"

"_It's complicated, but I'll say yes for now,_" Anto noted quickly that this odd communication worked when he 'directed' his voice to the Pokémon he wanted to talk to. "_Listen, I heard about your problem, and I think you shouldn't care what other jerks think of you. Harold thinks of you as an amazing guy, but you both have the problem of not believing in yourselves. Just know that if you don't like yourself, your hurting other people too—_" Anto was interrupted as he suddenly saw a flash of images in his mind, something about a girl, but it quickly vanished.

Noticing that odd moment, Takezo asked, "**Are you alright, Anto?**"

"_Y-yeah…_"

"OK…" Harold said as he finished reading the message. He stood up, walked up to his Pokémon, then kneeled back down. "Look, Pachi, I'm sorry you got partnered up with a lousy trainer, but if you give me another chance, I think we can be more famous than Ash Ketchum, or even Red, heck! We could be more famous and successful than all those Pokédex wielders combined! But… we need to be just plain old Harold and Pachi before we can get there… so how about it? Ready to try this again as ourselves?"

Pachi quickly wiped off the paint around his face and smiled before jumping into Harold's arms in a warm embrace.

"**I did not understand a word he said,**" Takezo commented, which made Anto turn a slightly disappointed look towards his companion. "**However, even I felt true sincerity and acceptance in his words and in his eyes. And I'm sure Pachi did as well.**"

The two then simply watched the other two rather confident living beings hug their problems out.

* * *

Anto and Takezo waved goodbye to Pachi and Harold. However, as a token of appreciation, Harold gave Anto a map of Unova, 2000 Pokédollars, two Pokéballs, one Great Ball, and directions to get to Striaton City soon before the day ended.

"_He was way too generous with the gifts he gave me…_" Anto commented to Takezo as he read the map on their way to Stiation City.

"**Kindness is quite contagious,**" Takezo squeaked. "**He showed you kindness because you showed him kindness.**"

Anto raised his brow, "_What do you mean by that? I didn't do anything worthwhile._"

"**Modest and kind, either that, or your oblivious… Anto, you helped those two understand each other when they were too depressed or distracted to realize what the other was feeling.**"

"_I think you're giving me too much credit, I think anyone could have done that…"_

"**Perhaps, yet you are still kind and that too is worth praise as well.**" Takezo finished.

Anto blushed, "_Aww shucks, Takezo… but thank you… so now that this crazy morning is over with, how do we get back my memories?_"

Takezo place a hand on his chin as he walked. He closed his eyes and began speculating, "**What I would like to assume is that some humans know what happened to you. After all, you came from a human machine; therefore, humans know or knew what happened to you. But the questions are who did that to you? And why?**"

Anto looked over to Takezo and asked, "_How do we answer those questions?_"

"**Let us travel to all Human areas here and see if we can find a connection. Humans are mostly found in their own man made jungles, or what you call cities or towns, so there is a chance we may find what you are looking for there.**" Takezo assumed.

"_You want me to ask everyone I can see within my gaze?_" Anto raised his brow.

"**No, not truly, because I have this odd sensation that the answers will find you, since so far, you seem to attract trouble like Klangs are attracted to larger gears. I am fairly certain your answers will come in a violent and absurd manner that shall only affect you.**" Takezo teased.

"_Oi._"

Takezo laughed, and soon, Anto laughed with him. For two people who had met only a day before, one could almost mistake them as life long friends.

"Wow!"

Anto and Takezo looked over to see a slightly older kid. This young man was slightly older than Anto. He had dark green hair that was parted in the middle, he wore a red head band, he was wearing a new black shirt with a Pokéball symbol in the middle, his pants were red shorts, and he was wearing purple shoes. He was holding a larger notebook, or a sketch pad, with a pen in his hands.

The young man walked over to the two. Specifically, he walked over to Takezo and quickly seemed to scan the bamboozled little creature.

The stranger simply smiled as he nodded his head as if he was satisfying a private question or assumption. "The color of your eyes are so vivid! Those are sure fire signs to show that you are a very healthy Patrat! And is that a sword? That's so amazing, I never thought of a Patrat being able to wield human tools!"

Anto gave a strange, shocked look in his face while Takezo tilted his head at the stranger.

"I've haven't seen a Pokémon and his trainer get along so well since… hmm, a while! Hey, do you mind if I sketch your Pokémon?" He asked the still dazed and confused Anto.

"Uh, hello?" The older boy wondered why they were still staring at him weirdly. He suddenly realised his fault and laughed at himself nervously. "Oops, I did it again huh?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I got so excited," He apologized. "My name is Tracey Sketchit, I'm an assistant of Professor Oak, and I'm a Pokémon Watcher. I came to the Unova region because Professor Oak wanted to update his digital images with more organic drawings instead, so he asked me to help draw him some new images. Who might you two be?" He openly told them.

Anto scribbled on his note pad and answered: "Hello, Tracey, my name is Anto, and this little guy is Takezo. Sorry for talking like this, but I'm mute…"

Tracey seemed startled and he tried to correct himself, "I am so sorry to hear that—I mean read that—err… I am sorry about that." Tracey said as he bowed.

Anto quickly wrote again: "It's alright, so why do you want to draw Takezo and me specifically?"

Tracey nervously rubs his head and chuckles. "Well to be honest, you two remind me of my best friend: Ash and his Pikachu."

It was the second time the two had heard of that name. Was there some kind of connection?

"**His name again?**" Takezo squeaked.

"_It might just be coincidence… but it feels unlikely…_" Anto wrote again: "Tracey, we may not look it, but we've had a tiring morning. Could we go to Striation City's Pokémon Center first and talk more about this sketch later?"

"Oh sure, no problem!" Trace happily complied. "I just left there recently. I'll show you guys back there." Then he went ahead of them and started leading them to the city.

While they were walking behind Tracey, Takezo spoke in a low voice. "**Anto?**"

"_Yeah, Takezo?_"

"… **You really do attract odd circumstances.**" He commented again, but this time, it seemed that it was mentioned as a more thoughtful note than a joke.

However, Anto didn't notice that. "_Hey!_" Anto shouted back in his head.

"Anto," Tracey called out and interrupted what might have been a 'fun' conversation. "That's a very artistic shirt you have there," He pointed to Anto's Union Jack Shirt as he walked, "I've never seen that type of brand and pattern before. Where did you get it?"

Anto scribbled on a piece of paper: "I don't know actually."

Tracey stopped and asked, "Huh? Why?"

Anto sighed. Anto explained that he had actually lost his memory, and that Takezo was helping him regain his memories. However, when Anto told the story, he told Tracey everything but the fact he could hear and talk to other Pokémon mentally,and the fact that he fell from the sky from a metal object.

"**Anto, why are you not telling him about your ability? Or the machine?**" Takezo wondered.

Anto rubbed the back of his head. "_I… I have this weird feeling that no one would believe me if I told them, and… I just don't think it's a good idea to let other people know right now._"

Takezo nodded and folded his arms. "**You're choice then, just be sure to explain soon, or else this secret may cause trouble in the unknown future.**"

Tracey, on the other hand, was shocked at Anto's story. "You ran over a human being with a stolen motorcycle?!" After hearing his story, Tracey pitied Anto's situation. "Anto, don't lose hope, let me join you and help you find your memories!"

Anto was rather surprised at the reaction Tracey was giving, it was nice, almost 'kid cartoon nice'...

he didn't know why those words crossed his subconscious, but he quickly wrote down something,"Really? I don't want to trouble you or anything."

"Nonsense!" Tracey declared. "We'll travel around Unova, and see if there's anyone who knows about you! Besides, I'm supposed to draw Pokémon all over this region, so my task won't be affected at all! Lastly, I always find it way more fun to travel in groups!"

Anto thanked Tracey for his kindness, but they all agreed that they should head to town first and plan what to do next.

After a walking for a few minutes, the group had entered Striation City, and was now making their way to the Pokémon Center. Anto took in the sites of the place and was happy to see everyone with their Pokémon playing or walking around. However, something felt odd as Anto noticed several people staring back at him and whispering something between themselves.

In the distance, Anto saw an odd sight of several bald men wearing some black and red uniform suspiciously walking in a random direction. But he just dismissed them as a bunch of people who live in this town.

As they entered the Pokémon Center they spotted Nurse Joy with Officer Jenny at the counter.

"Hello, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny." Tracey called out.

The two turned and greeted Tracey back, "Hello son—huh?! You!?" But then Officer Jenny noticed Anto and pointed at him questioningly.

"Is there a problem Officer?" Tracey asked.

"Shut it!" She said as she took out handcuffs and placed them on Anto. "You, Biker thief! You're under arrest for assault, grand theft auto, and attempted manslaughter!"

"_Huh, I was wondering why I felt like I forgot something…_" Anto realized that he had forgotten that he had ran over some weirdo just yesterday.

Technically speaking, he was a wanted criminal after all.

The Officer pulled out Anto and started pushing him out of the center. "You have the right to remain silent—" Anto quickly rolled his eyes, "Anything that you say can be used against you in court." She recited.

"Wait, officer, this is a misunderstanding!" Tracey tried to defend him but then Officer Jenny cuffed him as well.

"You must be his accomplice!" She judged wrongly.

"What?! No, I'm with—!"

"I read the rights to him, so pretend I'm reading them again to you. Let's go you punks!" Officer Jenny quickly cuffed Trace and pushed him out as well. Anto sure was surprised at how buff Officer Jenny really was, or that he really needed to work out.

"**Wow, I was merely joking about you attracting trouble, but this is surprisingly very amusing.**" Takezo chirped as he tagged behind Anto.

Anto looked pleadingly to his Pokémon. "_Don't just walk there, help me!_"

"**I'll go with you, I do not disobey laws.**"

"_You're the best Patrat in the world_." Anto mentally stated.

"**Ahh, it appears you are capable of sarcasm. See? These events are helping you return to who you once were.**"

"_Stop being so witty and formal at the same time!_"

{Later…}

Anto was just shoved into a cage and it quickly closed behind him. He was arrested, separated from Takezo again, and worse was he brought Tracey along with him to jail. Anto sure was feeling guilty, but at least things couldn't get worse.

"Oi, looky at what the police officer dragged in…"

Anto finally noticed that he wasn't alone in the cell. As some of the people came out of the shadows, Anto's eyes widened as wide as walnuts. It was the gang he stole the bike from…

"If it ain't mister poet, _sooooo_ good to be seeing ya, bra. 'Fraid the feds got you and brought you somewhere else… but thank lord Arceus or Mew or whateves that you landed in our humble abode…" The Leader of the Biker Gang said as he made a welcoming gesture to Anto. "Oh? I be seeing ya don't have that Patrat with ya's…" He smiled.

Anto moaned—well he would have if a sound came out, but it just looked like he was having some odd crick in his jaw. But don't worry there will be an actual crick in that jaw soon.

{Meanwhile…}

Deep within a room filled with countless screens of countless areas and scenarios, the leader stands on the main balcony, grinding his teeth in frustration.

"Is what you're saying true? Has Zygrade truly left the Kalos region?"

One of the technicians answered in a thick, familiar accent, "Yea boss! Young Shelia's energy signal been detected down under Kalos for some time, but clever girl's gone down and made its way towards Unova!"

"… OK… why did you code name Zygrade, Young Shelia?"

"Well ya see, boss, it started with these here two roisterdoisters were getin them almond's and adam's on—"

"Forget I asked. Get back to work without talking for one hour, and you all get a 10% raise," The leader said as he exited behind the door. He took out a jug and drank from it for a while.

"Haa… great, now the legendaries are picking up the energy from the Seed. My commanders need to hurry up or else the host might… bah! I need more apple cider!"

"Oi, boss, ya better not be elephant's again. Don't wan' another round of you knows what." A guard called out.

"I told you people: I quit drinking!"

* * *

**{Author's Notes}**

**Such an inspirational man: under stressful environments, he doesn't drink. He just complains about not being able to drink. Truly, we must learn from by his example.  
**

**You know it's funny how Takezo, a Patrat, has way more character than Anto, who actually lacks and doesn't know his own character other than he cannot think of witty comebacks to snarky comments, and that he's nice.**

**But our heroes have a new party member: Trace Sketchit! Who of which is unavailable due to both of them being in jail. How will our heroes escape? Or who will pay the bail? Why are there legendaries heading towards Unova? Who else will appear?!**

**Find out next time on Anto's Bizarre Adventure! Thank you for reading, and reviews are warmly received. (most anyway.)**

* * *

"Well, this place is definitely different from Orre. But yeesh, being out in the dessert so much, the normal temperature places start feeling so cold."

"..."

"Will it kill ya to show even some reaction? You, heck, almost everyone here have never been outside Orre! Look at them all... they couldn't stop looking out the windows like they were kids..."

"..."

"You really don't care as long as we get the mission done right?"

"..."

"Fine! This always happens when I try to talk to you anyway... I still wonder how you only seem to listen to Gonzap."


	3. Ep 3: Knotting Destinies

Pokémon: Anto's Bizarre Adventure. Course 3: Enter, Team Snagem's Ace!

* * *

I'm falling down eternity,

Catching anything and everything I can,

I grab on the stars, the planets, the galaxies, light, and darkness,

I even grab the fabrics of space and time,

But I still fall,

I fall into the forever,

Yet…

* * *

"Please, Officer Jenny, you've got to let Anto out of there! All of those things he did were a complete accident!" Tracey explained to her as he was walking with Officer Jenny back into jail.

Officer Jenny sighed in defeat. Tracey had used his one phone call to ask for Professor Oak, easily the most famous Pokémon researcher in the world, and he explained to her that Tracey was his assistant. She apologized profusely for the misunderstanding and let the young boy go.

Now they were on their way to meet with the other boy. "Fine... If you, who has actual credentials from Professor Oak, say he's OK, then chances are you know what you're saying. Now I feel bad for locking him up with some of our tougher guests…"

As they entered the hallway where Anto was, they heard a harmonica playing a very catchy tune. Sounds of tapping and banging were in rhythm with the harmonica to make a surprisingly melodious tune. Lastly, there was a very deep voice singing and echoing throughout the walls.

_On the day I was born  
The nurses all gathered 'round_

Officer Jenny, and Tracey were shocked. Despite being confused at the sudden, yet surprisingly good music, they slowly made their way to Anto's cell.

_And they gazed in wide wonder  
At the joy they had found_

The other cages all showed the inmates deep in meditation to the song, tapping their feet or whatever to be in rhythm with the song.

_The head nurse spoke up  
Said "leave this one alone"  
She could tell right away  
That I was bad to the bone_

At Anto's cell, the group found themselves surprised to see that the harmonica player was actually Anto himself. The biker leader was the one singing in an almost hypnotic voice as he weaved his deep voice amazingly to the song.

_Bad to the bone  
Bad to the bone  
B-B-B-B-Bad  
B-B-B-B-Bad  
B-B-B-B-Bad  
Bad to the bone_

"Hey!" Officer Jenny yelled, making everyone in the room stop. Everyone turned angrily to the person who stopped their entertainment, but just as quickly groaned in defeat as they soon realized Officer Jenny returned.

The eye patched singer complained, "Oh come on, Jen, we was havin a ball."

"That's Officer Jenny to you, Dante. I'm cutting this jail house blues to a stop."

"OH!" The man named Dante pointed at her then slapped his knee. He showed wide eyes and an increasingly big smile. "That's the perfect name for our new band: Jail House Blues!"

Officer Jenny facepalmed and whispered something, "… Give me strength…" Then she opened up the cage. "We're here to take your harmonica boy, he's clear of charges."

At that mention, everyone, even in the nearby cages, expressed disappointment at the loss of their new hobby. "Aww…"

Anto tapped the one named Dante on his shoulder and gave him a nod telling him it will be alright before getting out of the cell.

Jenny and Tracey then turned around and made their way out of the cell area.

However, as Anto waved goodbye nervously at the former enemies trying to break his neck, a hand came out from one of the cells nearby and pulled Anto's sleeve. Anto was startled and saw an old man who had just grabbed him.

The old man's appearance went something like this: he was shaking uncontrollably, there were three scars over his left eye while one of his arms looked crippled and malnourished to the point it looked like a stick. Anto briefly wondered why such a man was actually in jail and not in a hospital, or even a mental institute. The man's right eye twitched uncontrollably while his own hand seemed to grip Anto's shirt shakily.

"Hey, let go of him old man Koe." Dante threatened lightly, referring to this crippled old man.

"Listen to me kid…" Koe whispered lightly in a raspy and dry voice. Anto couldn't help but notice a sense of fear in his eye as he stared into his own. "Be careful out there, something big is going to happen soon… beware the danger." The old man looked like he was about to say more, but he started coughing and let go of his sleeve. Then, after letting go, he huddled into a dark corner of his own cell and silenced himself.

Anto stared at him as Koe silently retreated to his cage. He wondered what that was all about. Danger? While Anto had found himself to be quite the magnet for trouble, he never really thought of his life being at risk. But that also brought up something odd, why was he so apathetic to that odd warning just now? Was Anto simply just ignoring the strange cries of a mad man? No, Anto had taken him seriously: the fear in his eyes seemed far too authentic to be the raging insanity of some strange man.

So if there was danger around the corner, then why did Anto have an odd feeling... a feeling to go rush toward it, to find it?

"Anto, something the matter?" Tracey's voice called out ahead of him.

Anto shook his head quickly, removing the odd thoughts flying within his mind. He simply glanced back ahead to Tracey, who was looking back worryingly back at him. Anto nodded his head and walked to catch up with him.

Tracey thanked Officer Jenny for letting them go when they arrived at the front desk. But she responded with, "Its fine, we already have enough problems to deal with as is…" She wiped her forehead. "Just be sure to behave yourselves, or else."

Anto could have sworn that he thought he saw something like a very serious look on her face for a moment. But he dismissed it as he heard Tracey talk again.

"Yes mam…" Tracey nervously replied. Both he and Anto bowed in respect before leaving.

A little later, Tracey asked Anto something that was bothering him earlier. "Anto, I didn't know you could play the harmonica. But where did you get it?"

Anto just held out the red and gold harmonica in his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

Tracey remembered about Anto's situation and gave him a blank note book. "Here Anto, write out what you want to say on this extra note pad."

Anto took the object then scribbled on the paper and showed it to him, "It's a weird story. It involves someone stripping... I am writing no more than that."

Tracey sweat dropped, but he decided to stop asking more questions. Something told him that he really shouldn't have asked.

Takezo appeared by stepping out behind Tracey with a smile, and simply stared at Anto.

"_I don't like this process of regaining my memories back._" Anto squinted his eyes at his friend.

"**No comment.**"

* * *

As they made their way into the heart of the city, Anto looked around the area again. This time he saw a large group of people passing by in the streets. It was far livelier than the outskirts of town when he and Tracey first arrived. The more people Anto saw; however, the more he felt disheartened by a new, gnawing thought.

Tracey seemed to know something was bothering him. He stopped walking and turned to Anto, "Anto, is something wrong?" he asked with sympathy in his voice.

Anto, as usual, took out the note pad and pen and wrote, "Don't you think that asking random people around if they know me is a bit tedious?"

Tracey placed his hand on his chin, "Yeah, you don't really have any clues other than that necklace of yours and your name, if it really is your name," He realized. "I told Officer Jenny about your amnesia, and she said she would spread the word about an amnesiac named Anto… but it's too vague as is. You might even be from a completely different region…"

The more he thought about it, the harder this actually seemed. How exactly would one go about trying to restore someone's memory?

They could try some psychic therapy: maybe have a psychic and/or psychic Pokémon reach deep into the subconscious and bring those memories back to the surface.

But then again, the results always vary depending on the skill level of both species. Not to mention there have been some cases where such practices would work, but the mental stress of forcing those memories back had some damaging effects on the patient's personality.

What about a more mechanical approach? Where there any machines that could have help in restoring amnesia?

Sadly, no.

While the technology to physically capture species of completely varying bodies, sizes, and biology, and put them into a wondrous pocket sized white and red sphere was simply ingenious, for some reason the human mind has baffled scientist, neurologists, and psychologist for eons. Making studies on the brain mediocre when compared with the rest of humanity's achievements.

Tracey looked around and spotted a fancy building in the distance, and then he glanced over Anto who was looking at Takezo squeaking and repeating its name. Once more, Anto and Takezo reminded Tracey of both Ash and Pikachu.

At that remembrance, Tracey then had a surprising yet somewhat crazy idea that just might work.

"AH! I have a great idea! Anto, why don't you join Unova's Pokémon league!?"

Anto tilted his head in confusion. The suggestion came out as almost random to him. "What are you talking about?"

Tracey began telling him what his train of thought was. "All region's Pokémon Leagues are telecasted all over the world! If you could join the league, I'm sure someone watching you will recognize who you are and meet with you! So instead of you looking around for them, they will look for you!"

Anto did believe that the thought had its merits: so instead of Anto looking for these people, they would flock to him if they knew where he was.

"That makes sense…"

"Oh wait," Tracey said as he realized the great and plan-stopping flaw of such an idea. "You're mute. It's hard to give orders to Pokémon if you can't even speak."

Anto sweat dropped. He knew that he could just tell Pokémon what to do with his odd pseudo-psychic ability, but he already convinced himself not to tell Tracey. Now he was immediately regretting his decision, but then again, how could he explain he could mentally link with Pokémon? Would Tracey even believe it? Anto had unknowingly made things more complicated on himself.

"Oh!" Tracey said as he made a fist and hit his other palm. There was a new rekindled light in his eyes, "I think we can still make it work! But first we need to meet with one of my friends here! Let me make phone call to him then we can go." Tracey cried as he ran ahead and took out a cell phone. Anto and Takezo looked at each other confused, but then shrugged their shoulders and followed right after Tracey.

After a while, Tracey led them to an odd building that looked like a combination of a tea house with something like ancient stone architecture around it. One sign in front of the building said: Striaion Gym.

"A friend of my friend helps run this gym. I've only met him once, but he should be able to help us out." Tracey explained. "He said that he would be inside, and that we're welcome to just enter through the door. Come on, let's go in."

Anto and Takezo followed Tracey in and saw a grand area that looked to be used as a café, but deeper into the building lay a grand battle field. There, three similar looking waiters, probably triplets, were talking and discussing with each other. The triplets seemed easy enough to distinguish between them because of their different colors and hair styles: one was red, one was blue, and one was green.

The green one smiled and waved as he saw Tracey. "Ah! Tracey, it's good to see you again! I was wondering where that familiar scent was coming from! I should have recognized the air of someone from Pallet Town!"

Tracey went up to him and shook his hand. "It's great to meet you again too, Cilan. It's really too bad we only met each other briefly in our first meeting."

"It's fine!" Cilan smiled, but turned his attention to Anto and Takezo. "Oh, are you a challenger? Sorry, but we're closed for today."

Tracey quickly answered for him. "Ah! No, you see, Cilan, I need your help to help Anto here. He's got a very remarkable problem." Tracey then explained Anto's problem to them, excluding the fact he could 'talk' to other Pokémon and how he fell from the sky.

The triplets listened intently and were rather surprised: Anto was the one mentioned in the news as the one who ran over a team Plasma preacher. Honestly, the picture in the news line made him look almost deformed, but that might have had something to do with the force of wind flying into his face while he was still falling.

Anto noted to himself that he probably shouldn't rely on the newspapers in helping him with his problem, seeing as how they seem more preoccupied in sales and headlines than in helping him. But for now, he would still go along the plan Tracey thought about and had just finished explaining to the triplets.

"Such a bitter and sour flavor!" Cilan said, choosing odd words to describe Anto's situation. "My brothers and I would love to help with Anto getting past his battling mute problem, but…"

Cilan's brother, the red triplet named Chili, spoke out for them. "We have a problem of our own that's why we closed down the gym for today."

"What seems to be the problem?" Tracey asked.

The triplets all looked at each other solemnly before all nodding at the same exact time.

The blue triplet, Cress, stepped towards them and filled them in on the situation. "You see, we've just been asked by the police to help assist them with an attack on the Dreamyard, an area that used to be a laboratory, but now has been left as a ruin due to lack of funds by the city council."

"An attack!?" Tracey exclaimed as the new group were shocked at such a dramatic situation.

"The police asked us to keep this under wraps because they didn't want to alert the public, but they believe that an organized group of gang members have snuck in, and made a base of operations in the underground area of the Dreamyard. These guys call themselves Team Snagem, a rather powerful crime group that flourishes in the lesser known Orre region, but now it looks like they want to up their game by expanding to Unova." Chili passionately explained.

"That's terrible!" Tracey called out.

"We were planning how to lead the offense, but then you called. Which was magnificent timing in our part; I remembered Ash once telling me that you had a Venonat and a Marill that could help detect other Pokémon from a distance! With you helping us out, we can launch better engagements at Team Snagem and catch them by surprise!" Clian exclaimed as he snapped his fingers and pointed them at Tracey while winking. He did that because he was trying to emphasize the idea, but to Anto, he thought that seemed excessive.

"Alright, I'm in. There's no way we're letting another Team come here and harass the people of Unova!" Tracey cried out.

"Wonderful!" Cilan and his brothers cheered at gaining another helping hand for their upcoming raid.

Tracey's expression softened as he remembered something important. "But what about Anto here?" he motioned to Anto and Takezo.

The triplets realized Anto also had a problem. They couldn't bring someone along who couldn't defend himself, even if they knew his Pokémon was mysteriously skilled. However, Chili thought of an idea. "Anto, do you mind if you and Takezo watch the gym while we're all gone? We promise to help out after the crisis."

Anto nodded, but he continuously rubbed his head. Whenever he heard the word 'Team Snagem', his brain would flash several images of large machines, Pokéballs, bald people in red and black uniform, but he saw one clear vision of a teenager with silver hair, wearing a visor and a blue overall coat. Attached to his arm was an odd device.

Cilan sighed in relief. "Thank you, we will be back soon, but for now we have to head to Officer Jenny and tell her about our plan." They all nodded and made their way out of the gym.

But Chili noted something quickly to Anto before they left, "Anto, the gym has a new security system that will activate if the gym leader, or leaders in this case, leave the gym. You should be fine as long as you stay inside here, but if you leave without us coming back first, you will be locked out of the gym with no way back in. Understood?" Anto nodded at the explanation.

With that, the four left Anto and Takezo at the closed gym.

As soon as they left, Anto sat in one of the tables at the café part of their gym. Takezo asked what that was all about, but Anto merely repeated what they had told him. Takezo instantly wanted to go and follow after them. However, he noticed something that made Anto seem deep in thought,

"**Anto, something else is bothering you…**" Takezo stated. "**You seem distracted despite your new friends going to battle soon. Why did you allow us to stay behind?**

Anto looked at Takezo, unsure of how to react. He sighed silently and thought about his problem. "_It-it's complicated… but I think Team Snagem is more than just some organized gang members, and I'm trying to remember why,_" Anto repositioned himself on the table to better face Takezo. "_Look, whenever those guys said their names, I had visions. There were so many, but I think I got what my brain was trying to tell me. They have these… machines that do something to Pokéballs… and there is this teenager among them… he's __**really**__ good according to them._"

"**Visions? Anto… are those your memories?**"

The boy reflected a bit on that question: where those really his memories? If so, did that mean he was from Team Snagem?

But something was different, very different. Up until that moment, most his memories were all just voices. He swore he heard different people or probably himself state words that sounded organic. Yet thinking back, something did feel off when he thought he remembered how to drive a bike, it was like something was force feeding him information.

Through this, another odd question came to his head.

Is there something else in my head besides my memories?

Anto slumped into his seat and stared into the ceiling. "_I honestly don't know. My mind seems to know things more than I expect. I swear that over half of the people I've met so far seem eerily familiar to me, and I can't explain why._" He also noted out loud.

He didn't know why he did that, but he felt as if he should have said that.

"**I see… but what if… they aren't your memories? What if they're something else? Let me go back to what you said about a teenager in blue. What did you mean by ****good****?**" Takezo asked as he leaned closer. He was more alert and focus for some reason. Maybe he was assuming they weren't his memories because he didn't want to believe that Anto was a part of such a violent group of humans.

Anto tried to look back at those images, and he was able to see them again, but less vividly for some odd reason. "_I think... he and his Pokémon are stronger than a Gym leader…_"

"**Should we go to Tracey and tell him of this then?**" Takezo stood up on the table, ready to bolt at any notice.

Anto gripped his head in pain, he wanted to focus on something he saw. "_Wait… there's more… I keep being shown the images of their machines… I think… oh gosh…_" Anto stood up from his seat with horror in his eyes. "_They're snag machines!_"

"**What is a snag machine?**"

"_Snag Machines are special devices that hack a Pokéball's catching system! It turns normal Pokéballs into Snagballs which have the power to steal other trainer's Pokémon! If those guys and the police fight against team Snagem, they will lose their Pokémon!_" Anto mentally screamed, but in the back of his mind, he wondered how he knew such a thing? Was he originally a part of that group after all if these were his actual memories? But none of those still explained that mysterious white… space ship… or whatever.

However, in the passion of the moment, Takezo screamed, "**That sounds terrible! We must warn them now!**" Takezo cried out valiantly, and drew his blade. Anto nodded and the two quickly dashed out of the gym.

"_WAIT!_" Anto screamed, stopping their run. "_I completely forgot where the police station was!_"

…

One could probably hear the mental facepalm from the stunned samurai.

"**What do you mean you ****forgot****!?**' Takezo angrily waved his sword.

"_I was following Tracey around and I spent too much time look at the people here! I don't remember where it is! What's your excuse!?_"

"**I'm a Pokémon! All your human structures look the same to me! Just as you humans believe all trees look alike! Not to mention, I have never been here before!**" Takezo screamed back, losing his cool.

"_Let's calm down…_" Anto said, searching his hands. "_OK, we could just ask around for directions—oh…_" He then realized he wasn't carrying anything.

In his passionate dash to the battlefield, Anto had left behind his notebook, pen, and even the town map back at the table he was sitting on.

Anto quickly ran back to the gym doors, but they were locked. Anto remembered what Chili had told him just a little while ago…

"_You should be fine as long as you stay inside here, but if you leave without us coming back first, you will be locked out of the gym with no way back in._"

Takezo noticed Anto's 'I messed up horribly' look in his face. "**Anto… why are you not going back in to the building to retrieve the items that can help us?**"

Anto backed away from the door and let his arms drop. He wore a vacant expression before saying, "_… I messed up horribly._"

{One hour later…}

Anto and Takezo have been wandering around Striation City. They were trying to look for this Dreamyard area, but they ended up getting lost again, and lost their way back to the gym. It didn't help with the fact that when Anto tried asking for help, he had to use hand motions and actions to try and convey his questions. That led to a lot of mothers running away with their impressionable children.

The two of them were sitting down on a fountain wondering what to do next.

"**This is distressing: the sun is starting to set already, and we have yet to warn our friends about what you know.**"

"_I know…_" Anto slumped in to the fountain and thought he felt an odd lump in his pocket.

He suddenly brightened up. Did he have something that could actually help them after all?

However, he found that the object in his pocket was the harmonica he got earlier today.

Disappointed at himself once more, Anto took it out and stared at his reflection on the shiny red and gold musical piece.

Then another spark of pain came to Anto's head as he heard a girl's voice.

"_I'm sure girls find playing a harmonica very sexy-haha*snort*… Tell anyone about this and you die horribly after becoming a eunuch.__"_

Anto, for some reason, chuckled and felt his heart ache at the same time. Who was this girl? Didn't he have a flash of blurry image of a girl before?

Anto's head pang with pain as another voice came from his mind.

"_Alright then… oh! Can you play the song, Just The Way You Are? I love that song_!"

Anto slowly wiped the harmonica after hearing the voice of the memory. He wondered about the song name the girl just said... what was it? Just The Way You Are?

Anto confusingly stared into his harmonica and saw his confused expression on it's shiny shell.

Come to think of it, when he played that tune earlier today, he played it on pure instinct the moment he put his mouth into it. Didn't some studies show that if your brain doesn't remember then your body would remember the actions somehow?

He didn't know the song notes, or even remember the proper way to play a harmonica, but Anto decided to try and play the song the girl requested to.

He felt his body moving on its own as he moved the musical piece closer to his mouth. He closed his eyes and let his subconscious mind control his actions. As he did, he started to play one of the most soothing music he heard since his amnesia.

{**Author Note: If you would like to hear a harmonica version of the song, then you can type this on youtube: Aiden N Evelyn- Bruno Mars – Just The Way You Are.**}

The song he was playing felt so familiar, but it was so happy… and fun…

Anto finished and put it down. He suddenly heard clapping, and looked out to see everyone around the fountain was applauding his little street performance.

"Wow! That was soooooo pretty!" Anto turned to see a blond girl wearing some kind of green hat with a horizontal white line. She had some odd clothes on her because it looked like she had one full white dress on and she just wore an orange vest over it. "What was the name of that song?! I never heard of it before! Did you make it yourself?" She continued to ask as she zoomed in closer to Anto's personal space.

"_Takezo, help me!_" Anto screamed in his head as he was starting to blush.

Takezo seemed to notice that Anto seemed different. Perhaps the opposite gender made him nervous or uncomfortable? Takezo smiled slyly before chirping out his name, which translated as, "**Just mate with her already and be done with it.**"

Anto, blushing furiously, glared at the Patrat beside him. "_HUMANS DON'T WORK LIKE THAT YOU JERK!_" But only saw his friend hold in a chuckle.

Takezo was enjoying this too much.

The blonde girl suddenly shifted her gaze to Anto's side. "Oh! Is this your Pokémon? A Patrat?! Aww, it has it's own little sword!" She said as she lifted him up. "That's so adorable!"

"**Miss, unhand me this instant!**" Takezo stated to which the girl simply giggled at his small voice.

Finally, with a petty victory at his side, Anto smiled, "_And the tables have turned; thank you karma! Now, if you would please, help us get to Tracey._" Anto sarcastically thought.

"Ah!" The girl said as she put Takezo down. She bowed in front of Anto before rapidly talking an entire conversation by herself. "I am so sorry! I got carried away. My name is Bianca, and I just started out on my Pokémon journey! On no!" She gasped as she put her hand near her mouth and realized something. "I was supposed to help Dr. Fennel, Black, and White get some dream mist from the Dreamyard! I gotta go, Bye!" She cried out quickly before running in the direction of where she was supposed to go.

Anto's eye widened as he looked at the girl run away, then he looked to Takezo, who seemed to be fixing his fur, then back to the girl. He quickly stood up and ran after the girl, but not before promptly grabbing Takezo's arm and pulling him as he ran after her.

[Meanwhile.]

Deep beneath the ruins of the lab, several dim lights lighted up the area. People in red and black clothing moved around large yellow machines with Pokéballs inside them.

In the center of the operation, one of these people wore glasses and had a Gloom standing beside him. What was different about this guy was that he seemed to be in charge of this group, but he seemed a little weird. Mostly because he wore sunglasses for some unknown reason while being underground such dim lighting.

"Sir Wakin!" A random grunt came up to him and saluted.

"Put your hand down kid, we ain't no government." Wakin dismissed as he turned around, leaning casually on the table as he folded his arms to meet with his underling. "What did ya want?"

"Sorry, si—err… Wakin. It's just… we can't find Snagger Wes anywhere!" The low level grunt called out.

"Are you new or something?" Wakin asked as he went up to the grunt. "Wes doesn't listen to anyone but Gonzap, besides, he told me he was scouting out the perimeter in case or info got leaked…"

[At the same time…]

The police force was slowly making their way to surround the Dreamyard. In one of the front lines, Officer Jenny, the Striation Gym Leaders, Tracey, and Tracey's Marill and Venonat were scanning the area.

"Alright…" Tracey said as he was waiting for his Venonat to scout the area. "It looks as though there are at least a hundred men, not including their Pokémon, underground setting up some kind of base."

"That sure is one helpful Pokémon. Thank you for coming Tracey, and sorry for today's earlier mishap. You're really helping us ever since we received word that the Pokémon Ranger we asked for back up was coming late," Officer Jenny said. She turned to her men. "Since they're underground, this works in our favor: bring out the tear gas and get ready to fill the cave with them! We'll force them out in the open!"

Tracey's Venonat suddenly started jumping. Tracey looked at what his Venonat was showing and his eyes widened. "Hey, guys! Venonat found something I think you should see!"

The view changed into the surface ruins where there was an odd event happening: two Team Plasma Grunts were knocked out unconscious in the floor. There was a Munna and Musharna being pinned down by an Espeon and an Umbreon. Despite knocking out the two Pokémon, the two Eveelutions were facing down a Snivy and a Tepig.

The two Unova starters were standing in front of two people: one was a boy with dark colored hair that had a hat, was wearing a giant blue coat, and had some kind of dark jeans on. The other was a girl that also had brown hair with a cap with a pink Pokéball symbol, wearing a white shirt with a black vest over, and also wearing a baggy jean shorts.

These two trainers were fiercely glaring at an older teenager with silver hair, face being covered by a visor, tanned skin as if he was under the sun a very long time, and he wore a blue overcoat that made him look very threatening.

"Who the heck are you!?" The boy cried angrily. "Why did you attack Munna and Musharna!?"

The taller teen simply ignored his question and continued to stare at them.

The girl tried to calm her friend down. "Black, calm down! His Pokémon are different… is he from another region?"

"White, I don't care where he's from! He even attacked those Plasma jerks, and they didn't deserve to be attacked from behind like that!" He screamed passionately before glaring at the visor wearing teen. "He's going down! Tep, Ember!" The boy named Black shouted as his little fire starter launched a flurry of Ember attacks aimed right for the Espeon. However, the black counterpart stood in front of its ally to intercept the attack.

"Umbreon, Secret Power." The silver haired teen pointed. His Umbreon's runes all glowed brightly, and the Pokémon launched several lights that smashed through the fire attacks.

Black gritted his teeth, but was surprised by his friend's next action. "Snivy, Leaf Tornado!" She cried out as her own grass snake suddenly spun fast and launched a powerful looking gale towards the two Pokémon.

"Espeon counter with Confusion." The blue clad boy called out. The pink cat like creature strode forward like a proud king. Its eyes and gem glowed bright and made the leaf storm freeze to a halt with a blue outline shining from the attack

The girl seemed annoyed, but not by the attack, rather her ally beside her. She turned around and gave said annoyed look to her friend. "There's just no arguing with you with you when you're like this..." She complained.

Black smiled brightly. "Right, thank you White! I owe you one!"

"You owe me more than that, but let's deal with this creep first." She sated as the two faced the stranger.

The blue clad boy simply pointed back and said, "Fire it back at them."

His Espeon's eyes glowed brighter and sent the attack back into the two Pokémon, smashing both of them and forcing them both to stagger back.

"Tep!/Snivy!" the two trainers cried out.

The Espeon suddenly looked at a random direction, staring intently as if there was something there. The teenage boy looked at his Espeon and seemed to understand what it was doing. He placed two fingers to a machine near his ear. "Wakin, this is Wes, we've been detected. Mobilize everyone, we're under attack." He calmly stated.

[Back with Tracey…]

The group of people knew something was bad when Venonat seemed to detect an Espeon, but they weren't expecting the Espeon figure to look back at them through Venonat's vision, and suddenly cut off the Venonat's power. The little fuzzy Pokémon fell down, only to be caught by his trainer quickly while he worryingly called out its name. It didn't help them to see Tracey's Marill jumping up and down very quickly; its ears were probably detecting a large amount of sounds making their move.

Officer Jenny gritted her teeth. "Everyone move! We just lost our surprise advantage!" With that everyone got their Pokémon ready for an all out battle.

[With White and Black.]

Returning to the event with the trainers known as White and Black, they seemed rather confused at what the boy just said.

The teenager suddenly took out a Pokéball and threw it at the Musharna. Both trainers gasped at the act, but Black acted quickly. "Oh no you don't, Tep get that Pokéball!" White instantly followed her friend's lead and sent Snivy as back up.

"I don't have time for you," Wes stated as he pointed towards them. "Espeon, Umbreon, stall them!"

The four Pokémon charged for each other. Snivy fought against the Espeon as grass and psychic blasts were sent flying towards each other. Tep sent Ember attacks at the Umbreon, but no matter how many attacks it did, it barely looked liked it damaged the dark type Pokémon.

A sudden ding was heard as it looked like Wes had successfully captured Musharna. He then took out another Pokéball and aimed it to Munna.

Ding!

However, to Wes' surprise, another Pokéball had already caught Munna. Then he saw Black slide to the ground and quickly grab Munna's Pokéball. Black made a dash for Musharna's Pokéball, but was immediately stopped by a hard thrown Pokéball to his neck. Black staggered back and in his pain, but saw Wes ran up and picked up Musharna's Pokéball.

Wes glared at Black through his visor. "Give me the Psychic Pokémon, or else." Wes stated.

"Heck no! You give Musharna back, you creep!" Black yelled.

Wes would have simply ordered his partners to attack, but all of them heard someone's voice and several other loud sounds heading towards them.

"There he is! Back up Snagger Wes!" Several voices cried out.

Blacked and White's eyes widened in horror as they saw a large group of people wearing red, black, but for some reason bald, coming behind Wes with a large variety of Pokémon they've never seen before.

One of those people sent out an odd crab like Pokémon, "Corphish, Crabhammer on that Tepig!" He screamed as the little creature quickly made his way to attack the tired looking Tepig.

Black was about to cry out for his Pokémon, but a fast green blur distracted him just as fast, followed by a commanding voice, "Scyther, Slash!"

A large looking insect Pokémon -probably a mantis on steroids- slashed the crab Pokémon in one powerful swipe and launched the Pokémon back into his trainer knocking out both of them in on move.

"(Scyther…) **Picking on the weak, how pitiful…**"

Black and White looked behind them, and was surprised to see the entire police force along with the Striation City Gym Leaders coming to their aid.

Officer Jenny stepped forward and used a mega phone. "Team Snagem! Allow me to be the first one to welcome you to Unova, now get the heck out of our region!" At that, all police officers sent out their Pokémon which most, if not all, were all Unova native Pokémon.

The crowd of grunts parted to show a different grunt wearing sunglasses with a Gloom walking beside him, it was Wakin. One of the grunts also handed him a megaphone so Wakin could reply to their hosts, "Well then, _Officer_, we thank you for your hospitality. In return for your kindness, we would like you to go suck on a Muk's gunk." He calmly retorted.

At that, all other grunts except Wes, cheered and mocked at the police force. They did that before sending their own Pokémon that seemed to be loosely related to Pokémon from the Hoenn region.

Cilan looked over to the two trainers. "Oh! Black, White?! What are you two doing here?! You need to get out of here, it's going to get messy from here on out!"

Black and White came over to the Police side, but they didn't go any further than the front lines. "Sorry Cilan, I can't! That blue punk over there took Musharna! I'm getting her back!"

Wes remained stoic when their gazes turned to him. However, he took out the Pokéball of the Pokémon in question and tossed it to Wakin, who of which caught it without missing a beat. "Yeesh kid, we caught it fair and square, no need to get your panties in a twist." Wakin insulted.

Black glared at Wakin, and then the standoff became far tenser. Everyone on both sides seemed to be out for blood. Some Team Snagem Grunts were slowly pushing large yellow machines from the back line. While the police were getting the tear gas ready, riot shields, and other equipment ready.

However, just before any one or both sides could call the attack, a loud, mechanical roar was heard throughout the area, catching the attention of everyone that heard it's mighty sound.

"What the heck was that?" Chili asked as everyone turned to the upper ruins and heard it coming closer and closer.

Wes, on the other hand, actually recognized the sound. He actually broke his stoic brood and slowly made his way to the sound. "No… I hid that…"

Now a new sound was heard… or maybe two along with the growing mechanical sound. It sounded like a girl screaming along with a Pokémon.

"That voice… oh Arceus, is that who I think it is!?" White cried out, immediately moving her hands to her mouth before crying out, "Bianca!?"

VROOM!

A large hover motorcycle flew high into the sun-setting sky and landed right between the two opposing forces.

And by landing, it actually flipped over twice from upside down to right side up, then continued spinning around uncontrollably until the bike stopped smack dab in the middle between the two sides. Despite the odd sight, the people riding said bike seemed to be unharmed...

For now.

To bad the same couldn't be said for the bike itself.

Wes, filled with unknown rage, suddenly yelled so loud and angrily, even Wakin was taken back, "MY BIKE!?" He yelled like a mad banshee.

Then Wes locked his glare on the soon-to-be-dead man 'driving' his hover bike, a strange kid with a beautiful necklace.

"(Pat…rat…rat.) **Anto… this… doesn't bode well…**"

"_Aw sugar honey ice tea._"

* * *

{**Author notes.**}

**Can our unfortunate main hero, who has somehow stolen one of the most badass vehicles in Pokémon history, survive the wrath of one the most badass Pokémon protagonists of all time?! **

**Probably, but something crazy, weird, and embarrassing must be done before such an event can be achieved.**

**One more thing: There should totally be a remake of the Colosseum games. If the other games get ten year anniversaries, I think they should totally have some as well! How cool would it be to play as Wes again in the Orre region and use new Pokémon!?**

**Anyway, thank you for reading. Reviews are greatly appreciated.**


	4. Ep 4: War on Ruins

Anto's Bizzare Adventure- Chapter 4: Friends and enemies.

* * *

Under the setting sun, a peaceful and serene view of Striation town can be seen. As the small city heads into the night, its people slowly end their work and prepare themselves for a peaceful sleep.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!**"

We zoom in to find Anto running at mad speeds while dragging a screaming Takezo through a silencing road.

Anto stopped running and quickly looked around the streets. "_Darn it all! Where did she go!?_"

Takezo slipped his hand out and then glared at his companion, "**I would very much prefer a warning before you do something spontaneous!**"

Anto looked back at him and pointed in a random direction. "_The girl that picked you up, she was heading towards the Dreamyard in a hurry! But I lost sight of her!_"

"**Ahh, then it is quite convenient a picked up her scent.**"

Anto blinked. "_Scent? Can't you like… see her brain wave patterns, or probably see her trails of leftover soul residue with those huge circular eyes of yours?_"

Takezo stared apathetically at Anto.

"**Soul**… **residue? ...** **Anto… I cannot even fathom why you asked that, but I am a Pokémon, not a freak of nature.**" Takezo replied with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Anto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "_Well… I just thought you would be able to detect someone with those creepy eyes of yours. Seriously, according to my head, your eyes start having powers after your kind evolves. Why does your species have such creepy eyes that don't do anything before hand?_"

Anto could have sworn he saw a vein pop near Takezo's head as he folded his arms. "**Are you simply going to insult my specific species, or do you want me to find the female?**"

"_Please do._"

Takezo sighed and motioned Anto to follow him towards the outskirts of town.

As they reached a hill, they both saw a large ruined laboratory in the distance.

"_That's gotta be it!_"

"**Wait,**" Takezo quickly said. "**Her scent isn't heading towards those ruins,**" He sniffed the air several time before becoming tense. "**I think she may have stopped moving!**"

"_Wait, why is that bad?_" Anto confusingly asked.

"**You told me she was in a hurry, so why would she stop?**"

Anto thought about it a little. That Bianca girl he met seemed a little… air-headed; she probably got distracted or something. But if she wasn't, then the only other reason to stop going somewhere in a hurry was… "_Oh…oh no."_

Takezo ran off when he realized Anto understood as well. "**She may be injured, we must make haste!**"

Takezo ran through a thicker part off the road, and Anto followed through. He followed for a while but started to lose sight of his friend as he nimbly navigated through the thickening woods and bushes.

"_Takezo, slow down dude, I'm not that fast!_" Anto told him as he moved faster to keep up with his friend.

"**Oh! Anto, Stop!**"

"_Huh? Why—_" Anto asked just a moment before he ran out of some thick bushes, and found out he was running off another cliff. "_What the heckKKKK!?_"

With a mysterious case of déjà vu, Anto fell down a lesser cliff, or a rather a mildly steep slope, and proceeded to bounce up and down painfully before crashing face first into a tree with a slam.

Takezo, standing on top of the edge of the mild cliff jumped off and slide of the slope.

"_Oh gosh, my nose! Why!?_"

The chipmunk like Pokémon walked up to Anto. "**Anto, how are you fairing?**"

Anto slowly got up and rubbed his nose, thankfully, he found out it was neither broken or bleeding, but it still hurt like all heck. "_Well… all things considered, I think I got lucky… huh?_" Anto's attention was caught by something green on the floor. As he reached down for it and picked it up, his eyes widened as he realized that the hat belonged to Bianca.

"_This is her hat…_" Anto told Takezo as he quickly glanced around. He moved through more bushes and heard some soft whimpers. "_Hey! Bianca, can you hear me!?_" He screamed in his head before facepalming at his own mistake.

Jeez, being mute really was so inconvenient!

"**Have you ever tried using that on a human?**" Takezo chirped. He went ahead of Anto and sniffed the air. "… **There! Make haste!**"

The two quickly made their way to a clearing where they saw a dazed Bianca lying down on the floor.

"_Hey, are you alright!?_" Anto thought in his head, but it didn't seem to work. Not that it seemed like a good idea to scream something telepathically to an unconscious girl, but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Bianca moaned softly as Anto tried to see if she was alright. "Uhh… who's there?"

Takezo, deciding that this part was none of his concern, looked around the area. He still felt something off as he surveyed the area, but he couldn't explain why. He started moving around the clearing as Anto was trying to see if Bianca was alright.

Anto surveyed Bianca; he saw her roughed up, but it didn't look like she had any severe injuries. He didn't notice as he checked her, she was starting to waking up.

Bianca slowly opened her eyes. At first they were just opening and closing; she was still probably trying to re-orientate herself. But she started blathering to Anto, even though she didn't recognize him yet, about what happened to her, "Oww… what happened? The last thing I remembered was taking a short cut…" She finally re organized her thoughts and recognized Anto underneath the orange-red sky. "Hey! You're that guy I met a while ba—ACK! My foot!" She yelped quickly.

Anto looked over and touched the foot that seemed the most injured.

Bianca flinched at the grip. "OW! Hey!" She yelled.

Anto quickly shook his hands and motioned her to calm down. To him, her left foot didn't feel broken, but at least it must have been sprained.

First, Anto took out her hat from his pocket and gave it to her.

"Ahh! My hat!" She cried as she took it, but a surprised look formed on her face as she brought the hat closer to her face. She suddenly sniffed her hat… a lot. "Wow, it smells like—" She turned to Anto and pulled him close and started sniffing him, which caused him to blush for having a girl smell him. She let go and smiled cheerfully, "Wow! You do smell like berries! Thank you for picking up my hat." She cluelessly smiled at him, unaware that she just made his heart miss a few beats.

Anto learned something new that moment: he was terrible with girls.

A fact that would haunt him for who knows how long.

"**Anto,**" Takezo called out, much to the relief of Anto, and pointed over to a very large bush. "**This bush over here smells like metal.**"

Anto stood up almost too quickly, and went toward his friend's object of attention. As he came closer to the bush, it really looked… unnatural. Anto touched the bush, and quickly his eyes widened. "_This isn't a bush, it's a camouflaged cloak!_" Anto 'grabbed' the bush and removed the surprisingly large cloak.

Beneath the cloak was a large, powerful looking hover bike. Its engine was massive, and its design almost looked like it was somehow like a large monster truck engine strapped in front of a spiked wheel. It had a passenger seat, but it looked to be held up with hover technology.

"Wow, is that your bike?" Bianca asked as she started at the thing. Anto shook his head at her before turning back to the bike. It didn't look like there were keys left in the ignition this time, so riding it would be out of the question.

"**Can you drive this one?**" Takezo asked.

"_No, there isn't a key._"

Takezo shook his head. "**Shame, it would be much easier to move Bianca back to the Pokémon Center or safer grounds with this. As well as getting to the others quickly.**"

Anto inspected the bike's body; he couldn't help but feel this also looking familiar. As he continued viewing the machine, he noticed something off with the seat of this bike.

Anto motioned Takezo over and pointed to the seat behind the driving handles. "_Hey Takezo, I think the seat can be opened… think you can force it open?_"

Takezo nodded and took out his left palm. He comprised it of dark energy, showing that he was using his Assurance attack. He placed his hand around the area where the lock was, and a snap sound was heard, indicating that Takezo simply destroyed the lock.

The two opened the seat and saw a lot of wires and other components beneath it.

"Hey wait, are you guys stealing someone else's bike?" Bianca cried out.

Takezo and Anto looked at each other as they realized what they were doing.

Anto responded to her by shrugging his shoulders, but he turned back to Takezo. "_Wow, she's right, why are we trying to steal this bike again?_"

"**We will pay for the crimes later. Right now, we must forewarn the others of your information on the snag machines!**"

"_Oh right, but can I borrow your stick for a sec?_"

"**Why?**"

"_I'm going to draw on the dirt, so I can try to explain to that Bianca girl._"

Takezo held his sword endearingly after hearing his friend asking him to use his weapon as a form of rudimentary conversation tool. "**… Fine…**" Takezo gave up and tossed the small mini sword to Anto. "**Break it, and you will suffer for it.**"

"_Like I'm going to risk your wrath over a stick._" Anto told him before coming back to Bianca. He drew on the ground and wrote in small letters: "Look, it is very hard to tell, but I need to help a friend, so I'm 'borrowing' this bike. (again)" He noted that last word to himself.

Bianca read what Anto wrote down before lifting her head at the boy. She seemed to start at him until it finally clicked with her. "You… you can't talk?"

Anto nodded. He saw the look of confusion in her eye and was expecting another repeat of the same questions.

However, a loud mechanical sound came to life and interrupted a potential conversation. Bianca and Anto looked back to see the massive Bike started floating already. Anto glanced toward the seat and saw Takezo tangled with the wires beneath the opened seat latch.

"_You can hot-wire a hover bike!?_" Anto stared in disbelief.

"**Excuse me?**" Takezo asked as he moved wires around himself. "**I simply misinterpreted my footing and slipped into the wires here. Please assist me out!**"

Anto was about to go help, until Takezo jerked hard to the right, pulling wires that caused the hover bike to turn and roar to life as flames burst out of the pipes… it ended up stopping as it faced Anto and Bianca.

"Umm… I don't like how that machine is staring at us…" Bianca slowly mentioned.

Anto agreed, but he hated himself as he crept very slowly towards the bike. "_Takezo… don't… move… I'll get there quickly, but don't make another sudden movement… OK?_"

Takezo stopped squirming and closed his eyes. He was planning to try and meditate until Anto came to him. However, before he could reach a meditative state, the wind picked up and blew a leaf into his nose.

"_You have got to be kidding me._"

Takezo twitched, causing the machine to roar louder. His nose started to itch, and his eyes closed and became watery.

"_Come on Takezo, don't give in!_" Anto shouted words of encouragement mixed with traces of desperation.

Unfortunately, no matter how disciplined the little samurai was; he was no match for simple biology, "Paa… PAAA! …**PAAA**!" His gasps became louder as he tried to fight back the coming sneeze with all his might, each time the machine would grow louder and edged closer to the two children in front of it. "…Paa…"

Thankfully, Takezo relaxed and resisted the urge to sneeze. Both Bianca and Anto also sighed at the relief of the event.

"Well, that could have gone worse!" Bianca cheerily said. Anto turned to her with a shocked look in his face before hearing—

"**RAATT**!"

Takezo sneezed.

The sudden jerk of the Pokémon's whole body pulled the wires of the engine, allowing it to launch itself at the two children at charging speed. Anto, despite screaming cursing words he didn't even know he knew in his mind, quickly did what any logical person would do: he lifted up Bianca and tossed her into the passenger area of the hover cycle, shooting her in before getting slammed by the thing...

Wait... what?

He got caught between the area between the driver and passenger that rammed into him, and the mechanical powerhouse dragged all three of them down its speeding path.

"**Aannttooo!**" Takezo yelled. "**Myyy blaaaddeee!**"

"_Oh sure! Why, I'm fine too-no broken bones or anything-just a sharp pain in my stomach, thank you VERY much for asking!_" Anto mentally yelled back to him and dropped the blade into the wires with him. Afterward, he quickly tried to get up and handle the steering handles from where he was.

He swerved madly as he avoided trees, bushes, trees, bushes, rock, bushes, Pokémon, more trees, more bushes, and even more tress. Did we also mention Bianca was screaming that whole time as well?

"_Why are her lungs so healthy!?"_ Anto complained as he finally positioned himself better to handle the bars while Takezo finally freed himself.

Takezo jumped to the passenger seat, but not before putting down the other driver's seat. "**Anto, I fixed the seat. Drive this blasted machine!**"

Anto did what he was told and jumped into the seat. Finally, things were looking up, and they haven't even crashed into anything yet—

"I think you're about to jump off a ramp!" Bianca yelled as she pointed to some oddly mossy stone ramp.

Apparently, if you flirt with gravity, gravity get's clingy.

"**Instead of acknowledging this eerily familiar scenario, step on the brakes, Anto!**" Takezo yelled.

Anto tried, but the machine didn't respond. Some of the wires that were pulled didn't give complete control to the driver as of now. But that didn't cross Anto's mind, no, what crossed his mind was along the lines of 'It's only been two freaking days since I last threw myself off a cliff with the last stolen speeding vehicle! How the freak does this happen twice!?'

Both Takezo and Bianca yelled madly as they were all thrown into the air. Bianca held/crushed Takezo as they fell due to the laws of physics.

They felt themselves go vertigo as they all flipped and twist several times before finally stopping… right between two large groups of armed Pokémon and Humans.

"MY BIKE!" An angry and feral like yell caught the attention of the trio as they turned to see an angry blue coated teenager with an Espeon and Umbreon.

Takezo once more surveyed the area before saying, "**Anto… this… doesn't bode well.**"

"_Aw sugar honey ice tea._"

"A-Anto!? What are you doing here!?" Anto and Takezo recognized that voice and followed it to see Tracey along with his Scyther. Anto shrugged his shoulders simply because he had no way of physically communicating what had happened to him in recent events.

"Espeon, knock those idiots out of the Hover Cycle!" The blue teen cried out.

"**With pleasure, Wes.**" The eon Pokémon nodded before making his eyes glow toward the passengers, specifically the driver. But his eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly jumped out of the way of being hit by a rock, stopping his attack before he started.

Wes, the presumed trainer of the Espeon to Anto, looked to see where the stone came from and saw Takezo holding his blade in one hand and tossing another stone in his right hand.

"**I suggest not aiming for my friend, otherwise, I would have to be your opponent,**" Takezo chirped. "**And considering I am in a rather annoyed mood that would be very unwise.**"

"Bianca!? What are you doing there!?" Two voices from the opposite side called over.

"Ah! White, Black! Did you find the Dream Dust yet?" Bainca asked.

"Bianca, get out of there! It's dangerous!" White cried out. "And who is that guy your with?!"

Wakin, leader of the frontier group of Team Snagem, shook his head disappointingly before opening his megaphone. "Alright you thieves, you've got the count of three to get off our property before we blast you to kingdom come."

Anto looked over to Wakin and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw the machines behind him in the distance. (Wakin: One!)

Anto gripped the handles tightly and noticed that the engine was still on. His mind raced; he quickly glanced at Bianca and bit his lip. He really didn't want to do this, but he was running out of time.

"_Takezo?_"

"**Yes?**" The Pokémon replied, unmoving his glare at the Espeon and now the Umbreon. (Wakin: Two!)

"_Cover Bianca and I_." At that, Anto hit on the gas and made the machine roar to life. He turned the bike to run straight towards Wakin.

"Thre—Jeez!" Wakin cried as he, his Gloom, and other members quickly got out of the way. However, several blurs quickly went after the speeding machine.

Officer Jenny was surprised at the whole event, but she finally saw a perfect opening. "This is our chance men, Attack!" She yelled and all officers quickly charged at Team Snagem and their grunts.

Chaos ensued.

"Go Aipom! Stop that crazed kid!" a grunt cried out to his Pokémon. The small purple monkey launched itself towards Anto's front, but was immediately knocked back out by a wooden stick.

"What are you doing!?" Bianca screamed as she avoided random fires of Pokémon attacks.

A group of grunts sent a collection of rock Pokémon to bar Anto's path.

Takezo swatted away a Tailow before looking towards the blockade ahead. "**Anto!?**"

Anto gripped the handles tighter. He could simply turn, but at the speed he was going, he might cause the whole ride to flip over again, and he was not going to risk that a second time considering he was lucky to land right side up the first time.

Breaking was completely out of the option, due to the fact it still blasted didn't work! This still applied to the first rule since he would need the break to slow down and turn.

Anto exhaled in defeat, there was only one option left if he couldn't stop or move.

"_Sorry, Takezo, the brakes still don't work… but the acceleration does!_"

Takezo's already huge eyes widened even further. "**Wait, what do you meaAAAAA!?**" He yelled again as Anto sped of in greater velocity than before by forcing the accelerator.

Everyone in the blockade eyes widened in horror, both Pokémon and human alike when they saw that the kid showed no signs of stopping, instead, it showed he was actually moving faster.

"What the!? That kid's insane!" A grunt cried out from the blockade.

Anto floored the gas and made it go even faster. At the fear of impact, all the rock Pokémon and their trainers, quickly moved out of the way by instinct and allowed the machine to speed past them.

With them gone, Anto and Takezo had a clear line to all the rows of large Snag machines in the distance. Some of them started to already start cranking up.

"**Are those the snag machines?**" Takezo asked.

Anto nodded, but then he loosened his grip on the handles. "_Takezo, I'm going to ram this into the machines! Help me with Bianca—_"

For some reason, the entire bike suddenly stopped and both Takezo and Anto were thrown out of the bike!

Bianca jerked back and forth in the passenger seat. "Ahh! Are you to all right!?" She cried out. However she noticed some kind of odd glow around the edge of the bike around her.

"_Ugh… what hit us?_" Anto grunted as he stood back up.

Takezo stood up as well and drew his blade. "**It was them…**" He spat before taking a fighting stance.

Behind them were Wes, Umbreon, and Espeon walking up to them. Espeon's eyes were glowing and keeping the bike from moving.

The blue clad Snagger looked over to the row snag machines, then to his bike which looked like it was going to be used as a ramming device. "… That's impossible…" He said. "There's no way you could have known about the Snag Machines…" He removed his visors and showed a very hardened glare to Anto. "Who are you?"

Anto couldn't help but smirk. He got back up and thought in his head, "_Trust me, I wish I knew._"

Wes glared at Anto. He raised his arm which signaled his Umbreon to charge right for him.

The black Pokémon jumped and was going to land a Bite attack right for Anto. However, a blur intercepted Umbreon and forced him back.

"_Thanks, Takezo._" Anto told his friend as Takezo prepared himself in front of both pair Pokémon.

"**Do not be so quick to praise, it's a two on one in this situation…**" Takezo chirped.

"_Then let's not give them a chance to capitalize on their advantage, use Assurance on Espeon!_" Anto pointed.

With fierce speed, Takezo launched himself with a dark palm towards the psychic Pokémon.

"Espeon, Reflect!" Wes cried out quickly, making the Pokémon form a kinetic wall to prevent the attack from landing. Takezo hit the wall, but then instantly back flipped several times and landed back in a safe distance.

Wes was not going to let that thing get another hit off. "Umbreon, Bite!"

As the other twin came charging at Takezo, Anto gave Takezo command to counter. "_Use Cut in an upward motion!_"

Takezo stood his ground and tightened his stance. He gripped his blade below his waist and waited for the attack.

Wes saw the odd stance immediately, "Umbreon, back off! Espeon, Confusion on Patrat!"

Anto heard that just as fast. His mind raced quickly, and then he noticed the particular typing of the two Pokémon. "_Takezo, chase after Umbreon, hurry!_" He linked almost instantly after Wes's command.

In that moment, Takezo and Umbreon quickly switched situations. The moment Umbreon stopped his attack and tried to move out of the way, Takezo charged right for him, making them both within arm's reach.

Espeon launched the attack, but it was quickly cancelled with Umbreon being in the way.

Wes was startled by that—no, with this battle in general. He was sure that his Pokémon were of a higher level, (Wes: Grr! Umbreon, Bite!) yet there was this really peculiar trainer and Pokémon standing toe to toe with them despite being in a huge disadvantage. (Takezo slid beside Umbreon and started riding him, punching him on the head as he did) There was also the fact that the 'trainer' in question had not even spoken a word or a gasp to his Pokémon, but there was no way a Pokémon could be so coordinated even in 2vs1.

There was also the fact Wes couldn't help but feel impressed at the display of moves that Patrat just performed. One of the most common Pokémon in the Unova region, and this one was able to perform a dark type move like Assurance and was very nimble. There was also the curious fact that it could wield a weapon of some sort. 'It must be a bred Pokémon. There's no other way to explain its surprising move set… in that case…'

Wes grabbed a Pokéball with his left arm and it started to glow under the wiring of his machine.

Anto recognized what that was. "_He's charging a Snagball, you gotta avoid it!_"

"Umbreon, tumble around and use Bite!" Wes pointed. Umbreon fell to the ground, but Takezo had to jump off the dark Pokémon to avoid getting chomped by his fangs.

Seeing the Patrat finally away from Umbreon, Psychic attacks could now connect. "Espeon, Confusion to snare the Patrat!" Wes cried. Suddenly, Espeon locked down Takezo and lifted him to the air.

"_Takezo, no!_" Anto cried as he saw Wes threw the ball to him.

"Oshawott, Water Gun!"

A burst of water slammed into Espeon and canceled the psychic lockdown, which allowed Takezo to spin his blade and slam the Pokéball into the ground.

Anto and Wes looked to where the water attack came from. Bianca was still on the seat, but it looked like she brought out her Pokémon. "I don't know what's going on, but that's not fair how you gang up on one Patrat!" she cried.

Wes glared at her, which caused both Bianca and her Oshawott to step back, but Takezo slid between them, blade ready, shortly followed by Anto. Anto gave a nod of approval to Bianca before turning to Wes.

"Activate the Snag Machines!" A grunt cried out. Anto looked over and saw the large machines launch a large amount of charged Snagballs onto the police force.

"Ah! Stoutland!/Liepard!?" He heard police officers scream in the distance as they cried out for their partner's mysterious disappearance.

"No way! Those machines can steal other trainer's Pokémon!?" Bianca cried out in horror.

"Yes… but the question was how that boy over there knew about them," Wes pointed over to Anto. "You were aiming for them from the start, how could you have possibly known…" His voice trailed off as he saw the shine from Anto's pendant. His stoic and angry expression died out, replaced by a face of pure shock. "… You're one of **them**?!"

Anto's eyes widened. "_What did he mean by that!?_"

"**Anto, I don't know what he just said, but we have to stop the Snag Machines! Their turning the tide of battle to their favor!**" Takezo yelled.

Anto clenched his teeth. They needed some way to get to those machines, but this Wes guy was getting in their way, charging another Snagball, and more grunts were finally backing out form the fighting and starting to head to Wes to back him up—wait… what was that about a Snagball?

"_Takezo, he's charging another one!_" Anto cried. Takezo tensed and prepared for any tactic to attempt him from being hit.

However, Wes had a different plan, 'The way he and his Patrat stood in front of that girl…' he smirked at the Patrat before looking right for the… Oshawott. 'Let's test this out!' he threw the Snagball right for the water starter.

"**Whaa!**" The Oshawott cried.

"**No!**/_No!_/Oshawott!" They cried.

Takezo gritted his fangs and jumped in front of Oshawott before the ball could reach him. Then it made contact…

…

"Huh?"

"…_W-wha?_"

"WHAT!?"

The Snagball… just bounced of Takezo.

"How did you do that!?" Wes cried in disbelief. "The Snag Machine allows any Pokémon of a trainer to be caught!"

Anto was surprised, until he remembered a rather crucial detail between Takezo and him. "_Oh right… I never 'officially' caught you in a Pokéball._"

Takezo turned to Anto. "**Snagballs don't work on wild Pokémon?**"

Anto shrugged his shoulders. It looked like the day was saved due to hindsight. Who would have thunk?

"Snagger Wes! We're here to assist you!" Several grunts with a handful of Pokémon came behind him.

But then again, saved only applies after said trouble is finished, and this was far from over.

Wes simply shook his head, "I don't know how you did that, but I don't care, sick them!" He commanded as he pointed to Bianca and Anto.

"Oh no you don't!" Out of the sky, Black dropped between the two.

"Black!" Bianca cried out.

The young trainer smiled back at her before turning to face Wes and the other grunts. Out of the sky as well, a Braviary landed next to Black. "Anto, right?" Black asked as he said in a soft tone only their side could hear.

Anto was surprised to hear him say his name, but he nodded to confirm his question.

"I was told by Tracey who you are. We were wondering what you were doing charging head first into the enemy until later a volley of Pokéball stole our own Pokémon. Then we realized that you were aiming for whatever machines could do that from the start. The others are being pushed back, but they were able to send me here to help you two… got any ideas how to stop those large yellow machines?" Black asked.

"What are you nimrods doing there!? Make your move! Or are you too scared?!" One of the grunts jeered.

Anto moved to Bianca and quickly lifted her out. "H-hey!" She yelled before being put back down. Anto then slammed his fist into the engine (it hurt him a lot more than he thought it would.) and the engine came back to life.

Anto, held out hand out in pain as he screamed in his head. "_Oh jeez! That hurt!? Why the heck did I think that hitting the machine would work!? And why DID it work!?_"

Little did he know back then, Anto found an odd answer to his rhetorical question later on.

"Oh no, not this again!" Wes cursed as the familiar scene was a bout to play once more.

Anto and Wes glared at each other. The two had an unspoken agreement as their glares met, but they had both the same four words screaming in their minds:

_"I will stop__ you_!"

"_Takezo, we need to go on the offensive! Distract that Espeon for me at all costs!_" Anto said as he floored the machine once more.

Wes grunted in frustration, he was not going to let that quiet guy stop their whole operation with _his_ own hover bike. "Don't let him get anywhere near the Snag Machines!" Wes cried as he ran after Anto, he quickly looked to his psychic user and screamed, "Espeon!"

Espeon nodded, but the moment he tried to concentrate, a searing pain was felt all over his body. Namely, Takezo snuck in and launched an Assurance attack to the psychic.

Black understood what he was also trying to do. "Brav! Stop them from stopping Anto! Whirlwind!" He cried out to his Pokémon. The large bird sent a gust of wind that sent them all flying upward.

Over by the large Snag Machines, several grunts were preparing the next batch Snagballs.

"Why are the recharge times so slow on these things?" One of them complained.

"Don't you bozos remember? It takes time to upload the overlock program to these Pokéballs. Snagger Wes' snag machine is the newest model, but it can only charge one Pokémon at a time."

"Pff… at least we'll still beat these cops, I always wondered how we'd fair against an actual police force," He said as he noticed something in the distance. "I mean Orre's police force was just that Pokémon H…Q… Tom? What in blazes is that thing heading right for us?"

"I dunno know, Jacob, but it looks really fast… what do you reckon it is, Beethoven?"

"Stop calling me that! I hate that name! Seriously, why did my mother give me that name?!"

"Why did you use that name in your application form?"

"… Fair point…"

"Uh, guys? I hate to sound like a broken record, but that 'thing' just so happens to BE A CRAZED KID ABOUT TO RAM US! RUUUUUUNNNN!" He wailed as all grunts started running away from the Machines.

"He's going to make it!" Bianca cried as she saw Anto racing closer to the machines.

"Bianca!" Black cried out while he, Brav, Tep, Oshawott, and Takezo were fighting off reinforcements.

"Huh?"

"Don't jinx him!"

"**What!?** (Caw!)" Brav screamed in surprise as he looked up.

"(Tep?)** What's wrong?!**" Tep asked.

Takezo followed Brave's gaze back to the original Whirlwind. His sharp eyes saw that there was a glowing blue color, much like when that Espeon was using… Confusion…

"(Rat!) **Anto!**"

Anto was heading closer and closer to the machines, he had just seen a majority of grunts run away from the machines as he came closer. "_Almost there… I just gotta jump—what the heck is that shadow?_" He turned his head back and saw Wes being catapulted right for him!

"HA!" Wes screamed as he tackled Anto from the sky with great force, and causing the two to get slammed into the passenger's seat. The bike spun out of control rapidly before stopping, and then speeding right back towards the battlefield and away from the Snag Machines.

Anto landed head first head first into the passenger's seat, knocking him out. Wes also hit his head as he landed, but it was lessened due to the fact Anto was first to be slammed in and he softened his landing. Wes slowly got up, his senses re-organizing as he found himself speeding randomly across the battlefield causing both enemy and ally alike to get out of the way of the runaway hover bike.

He quickly turned his head back and saw that the driver handles were unharmed. But a bright flash of purple quickly appeared behind him.

Wes looked back, thinking it was a stray Pokémon attack, but he didn't see anything. Not even that fist that hit the jaw of his chin.

"Gah!" Wes cried out as he stumbled back to the edge of the other passenger seat. The new movement had force the bike to turn to start turning left. Wes calmed himself down to see Anto slowly getting up while holding his the part of his head he landed on. "You're still conscious?!" Wes exclaimed.

"_You jerk, did you just tackle me from the sky!? … The handles! I need to destroy those snag machines!_" Anto thought to himself as he looked at the handles, still tilting slightly and now making the Bike start to turn in a circle.

However, Wes quickly swung at Anto's face, which hit and caused the boy to stagger back down and start to bleed from his mouth. Wes pinned Anto down, and once more saw the necklace he was wearing. His eyes glared with rage and some trace of confusion. "What the heck are you company idiots doing?!" He yelled out as he grabbed his collar.

"_Company?_" Anto thought. "_This guy has a clue to who I am?_"

Wes loosened his grip and seemed to calm down. "Oh right, I forgot that you people sell to both sides."

"_What does he mean by that!? Why isn't he stating what I am!? Does he really know something about this necklace!?_"

"Then don't take this personally…" Wes darkly spat as he raised his fist. "It's just business."

"(Cacnea!) **Look out!**"

The two looked over to the attention catching sound that was heading towards them. A Cacnea slammed into the handles again and straightened the bike, causing it to go straight into one direction. The small cactus Pokémon bounced off the handles and landed unconscious right in the free space of the passenger seat.

The change in the bike once more distracted Wes. Anto looked to the green Pokémon with them and mentally told himself this would sting.

Anto grabbed the unconscious Pokémon and slammed it into Wes' face.

He couldn't help but cringe as he saw heard the spluttering sound of something sharp jabbing into skin despite all the noise around them.

"AAAH!" The Snagger wailed in pain and let go off Anto. Anto accidentally let the cactus Pokémon fly back out into the fight, but saw Wes cringing in pain as the some of the smaller spikes were left in his face.

Anto looked back to the handles and quickly looked to see where he was. He found out that he didn't need to worry about driving the bike because they were heading right back for the Snag Machines at increasing acceleration.

Anto made his way and got ready to jump off, but he hesitated when he saw Wes still recovering.

"_He knows who I am…_"

He sighed thinking that this would bite him in the but one day.

Anto grabbed Wes' collar before bringing them both out of the speeding hover bike. They both rolled off the ground; Anto looked back up to see the Bike ramming into the first machine and exploding… then instantly making all the other machines explode simultaneously. The blast power sent both of them flying into the woods.

Anto saw his world spin and started losing consciousness again.

Before the darkness could completely block his sight, he could have sworn he saw something... strange.

"_Well, well kid… that was… ENTERTAINING… I think I'm going to like you._"

* * *

[Later.]

Anto slowly opened his eyes. Every part of his body ached as he felt his control over them returning. The last thing he remembered was… making the line of Snag Machines blow up…

Anto stood up, even if his brain pleaded for him not to. Anto then noticed that Wes was unconscious behind him, and they had fallen somewhere lower than the battle field, probably one of the old underground labs of the Dreamyard. Anto noticed that he was nearby some stairs that lead back to the surface.

Anto also noticed that it was surprisingly quiet. After all the clatter and noise from the battle, he was surprised he could easily hear his own thoughts.

Anto slowly limped his way up the stairs. When he came out, he saw that it was already late at night. Once more, the night sky shined beautifully; Anto stared into the skies and felt the pain subside and weaken.

"_How long was I out?_" He wondered.

"**Anto! There you are!**" A familiar and caring voice of a Patrat cried out loud.

"_Takezo?_"

"Anto! Guys, he's over here!" Anto looked over to see Tracey, Black, Bianca, some girl he didn't know, The Striation Gym Trio, Officer Jenny, and Takezo running towards him.

"Anto, you're all right!" Tracey exclaimed before sighing in relief. "Thank goodness."

"Erm…" Bianca with some kind of brace on her leg now which helped her to stand, bowed her head. "I am so sorry! I didn't know you were mute! I just assumed you were one of those people that had a really squeaky voice and were like totally ashamed of it! Like that one time when I was watching a sitcom with my parents—"

"Bianca, let's not get too ahead of ourselves," The other girl gently interrupted her. "My name is White, it's a pleasure to meet you. And thank you for trying to care for Bianca, she... means well…"

"That was some explosive and fierce flavors you showed there!" Cilian cried out with his brothers nodding in agreement. "If it wasn't for you Anto, we might have had our own Pokémon stolen! Such a dark thought to think."

"Yeah!" Black passionately agreed. "Team Plasma was one thing, convincing other people to release their Pokémon, but Team Snagem were just brutes!" Black screamed before smiling then punching Anto in the shoulder. (Which hurt a lot for the still aching boy.) "But I have to admit, you were way cooler than I thought! I always wanted to meet the guy that shut up that jerk Ghetsis." He chuckled lightly.

Anto raised his brow at that. What did he mean by shutting up a guy named Ghetsis? Wait... that sounded familiar... didn't one of those cultist scream that name when he ran over that weird robbed guy?

Oh.

**OH**.

At that point, Officer Jenny had her say, "Well, I could arrest you again for stealing another motorized vehicle…" Anto tensed up and started to sweat. "But I'll look over it since it belonged to the bad guys. Consider us even for returning the stolen Pokémon back to my men. But, if I recall the story from Bianca and Black, you were blown away with a high level Team Snagem member…"

Anto tilted his head as she said this.

Officer Jenny blinked and rubbed the back of her head, "Right, perhaps I should explain what happened after you destroyed the Snag Machines: all of our Pokémon were returned to us after the Snagballs that contained them were destroyed. With their back up gone, their leader, Wakin ordered a mass retreat, before bringing out several dozen Voltorbs, and ordering them to self destruct. The extra large explosions allowed everyone of those idiots a quick getaway…" Officer Jenny disappointingly said. "Still… despite injuries, everyone was accounted for and we were able to drive team Snagem out of the Dreamyard. So, did you find this Snagger Wes when you woke up?"

Anto thought about it for a minute. On one hand, he could just say he was down below these stairs… but…

"_Oh right, I forgot that you people sell to both sides._"

That… Wes… knew something about his necklace... a Company? Anto considered trying to let them catch him and later interrogate who he was and what this 'Company' was… but his head ached. He could have sworn his head was screaming something else about Wes. Random words popped out in his head, all coming together to form a sentence that felt so foreign in his own mind:

**The redeemed thief shall pierce the Shadows and return the light.**

Where did that come from? Should Anto trust such vague words?

"…" Anto shook his head, indicating to the others he had no idea where Wes was.

"So you don't know where he is?" Officer Jenny asked, a little dejected.

Anto nodded.

However, a piece of his mind will have to reflect deeply on that... when he wasn't feeling so tired and weary. Still, he can't help but not think ill of the boy who slugged him in the face. His eyes didn't really seem evil at all, but they looked... hurt.

No, Anto was still a bit disoriented, he'd really have to think about this later.

"… It's alright, we still need to check you up. We'll bring you to the medical tent and patch you up. You've earned a good rest after this debacle." She stated as everyone crowded around Anto and talked more about their battles and what they did during Anto's fight.

…

"Why?"

Wes asked as he stood back up, hearing the entire conversation as it first started.

"He was mute? But that doesn't explain how his Pokémon… and even if he was mute, why did he not tell them where I was? He woke up earlier than me? … I just don't get it…" Wes wondered. He looked behind him and saw two pairs of glowing eyes coming out of the shadows: his Espeon and Umbreon, both of which seemed ecstatic to find their trainer and quickly pounced on him.

With his partners safe and sound in front of him, and being all alone with them, Wes smiled gently before looking up towards the night sky in contemplative thought. "… Anto, huh?"

* * *

[Elsewhere.]

Deep within the forest of route 3, among broken and trashed trees, the destroyed path was being walked upon by several courageous souls.

"I don't like this… the Capture Stylers aren't detecting any nearby Pokémon… which means they all ran away from whatever did this or…"

"Jack, Professor Hastings sent us and others all scattered across Unova. He said that he had a terrible feeling something big was going on here. Whatever did this… whether or not it's connected, we have to stop it in order to protect the Pokémon and people here."

"I know, I know, but we don't want to walk right headfirst into trouble, Summer. Isn't that right, Keith?"

"He has a point there Summers, being careless has cost me and my teammates a lot of grief…"

*Snap!*

"… Wait… did you two hear that?"

"rrrRR**RR**…"

"Get ready, you two…"

"**GRAH**!"

* * *

{**Author Notes.**}

**Hey guys, this is going to be used for a quick explanation why Takezo was unaffected by a Snagball. If you ever played Pokémon XD (or watched it via playthrough) then it shows how Michael only throws normal Pokéballs at the wild Pokémon. Another note was when Wakin explained in the first Colosseum that the Snag machine ****overwrites**** the data and functions of a Pokéball to turn it into a Snagball. So it shouldn't have the same functions a normal Pokéball have, which was designed to be for wild Pokémon only.**

**I thank you for taking your time to read this story and I wish you a good day/night/apocalypse.**


	5. Ep 5: Those Cheaters

**{Author's notes.}**

**Hey guys, trying something new(ish): this character will start off with Anto's P.O.V. This is just an experiment so…**

* * *

Anto's Bizarre Adventure Chapter 5: Getting it together.

"Click!"

"Click!"

No… not here either… let's try uhhh… "_Companies… that have… two colors in their logos…_"

OK...

No, that doesn't work either—stop giving me freaking ads about an Xtransciever! Freaking Poogle! Doesn't this thing have ad block?

"**I thought you explained that it would be easy to find the symbol or artwork on the pendant of yours on this… internet… you speak off.**" Patrat asked me as he held the shiny pendant in front of him.

"_It's a double edged blade. The information I'm looking for has to be specified, or else it will take any information that even relates to the subject. And right now,_" I told him as he handed back the necklace to me. "_The only things I'm getting are information on either Devo Co. or Sliph Co._ _those two corporate titans pretty much run a large percent of the economy._" I finished telling as him before looking over to Takezo who just tilted his head in confusion.

"… **You do realize I have no idea, nor care about the social structure of human society, correct?**" Translation: What the heck are you talking about?

I guess it make sense that Takezo doesn't understand how internet or business works even though he seemed smarter than your average Patrat.

I sighed before I answered him in far simpler terms. "_I need more information._"

"LOOK OUT ELITE FOUR! CHAMPION! I'M GOING TO WIN THE LEAGUE!"

OW! What the heck?! Oh yeah that was Black. He's doing what White and Bianca told me was his 'daily promise.' Yeesh, my head still is ringing; I can only imagine what that effect it would have on beings with sharper and honed senses… you know, like a certain pseudo-samurai next to me?

Ouch, poor little guy. He's clamping his head down really hard. Note to self: be wary of Screech attacks with Takezo, or other sound based attacks in general, they really might hurt him even if he somehow dodges them.

I heard a sound of a door opening and I saw Black enter back into the room with his Pokémon: Tep, the Tepig; Brav, the Braviary; and Musha, the Munna that he saved during the fight with Team Snagem.

He noticed me sitting near the computer as he entered back into our shared room. "Oh, hey Anto! Good Morning, you're up early!" He said cheerily.

I quickly took out another new large sketch pad with a pen and wrote down what I wanted to say to him. "Black, I am not one to judge people's habits, but could you not cause others suffering while your proclaiming madly to the heavens above!"

Black quickly read my words, but he laughed right after reading them. "Haha! Oh Anto, you sound like a poet, or a theater performer,"

Ow! … What the heck? Why was there a sudden pain in my head as soon as he said theater?

Black obviously saw me place my hand on my forehead and asked, "Huh? You alright, Anto?"

Huh, it's gone…

What exactly was that?

As for Black, I simply sighed and nodded to him to tell him I was fine.

But this Amnesia of mine doesn't feel normal… maybe I should wait in a hospital and let them figure out what's wrong with me. Actually, considering my own attempts at trying to regain my memories, that actually seems like a very good idea. Why don't I just do that?

"Well then, alright!" Black distracted my thoughts as he fist pumped to the sky. He quickly came up to me and grabbed my hand. "It's time for training! We gotta find some way to get you into the Pokémon League!"

What? Whoa-Jeez! He is strong!

He was starting to drag me out of the mansion of the Striation Gym Leaders. All of us stayed here for the night after the fight because the Pokémon Center was busy with all of the policemen's Pokémon. Cilan and his brothers wanted to lighten Nurse Joy's load by letting us stay with them.

… Now that I think about, I also remember Tracey explaining to everyone my story. But of course, he only told them pieces of the story; the parts I told him.

Bianca just gaped in shock at that reaction and almost started to cry hearing my story. She seemed to really pity my situation which was kind of nice having a girl care about me like-nostopdon'tentertainthatthought. Focus more on the fact she seemed to ignore all the potentially violent and troublesome things I did or was exposed to.

White wondered who I was to begin with. She said that if I was mortally injured when I was found, wouldn't that mean that someone might have been trying to get rid of me?

But I just shrugged my shoulders; I had no way either disproving or proving I was one or the other.

Black seemed uninterested until Tracey mentioned his idea about getting me into the world-wide telecast in the Pokémon League. Then he was totally engrossed with the idea, he promised to start helping me in order to get there.

This was what we're doing now.

We were allowed to use one of their practice Pokémon battle fields. I stood on the blue corner, while Black stood on the red corner. My only Pokémon was Takezo while Black sent Brav out to face us.

"Alright, Anto, I've been thinking about this all night! Usually, a mute would have almost no chance in even winning a Pokémon battle, but the way Bianca told me how you fought that Jerk got me wondering how you two seem to get along so well in a fight…"

I looked nervously at the back of Takezo's head while he folded his arms and continued to make eye contact with Brav.

Black continued to explain to me, "Takezo is obviously a very unique Patrat, being able to use a sword and being surprisingly strong for his species, but even if he is smart, I wondered how he was able to fight off against both and Espeon and an Umbreon: two powerful Pokémon that are fairly rare in other regions. It was confusing to say the least, my mind was too filled with the Pokémon League to even figure things out until Musha here," He pointed to his Munna floating beside him. "Ate my dreams!"

Ate… dreams? Oh right, Munna and Musharna are Pokémon tied to dreaming. White told me it's pretty much Black's only dream to win the Pokémon League and that he lives and breathes about it to an almost 'obsessive compulsive disorder' extent. (Her words not mine.) Musha must love eating those dreams then.

"From there, my mind blanked as he finally pieced together something," He pointed to me. "You actually **can** communicate with your Pokémon!"

Oh, so he did figure it out… how?

He obviously wasn't expecting me to just stare at him with an unchanged expression. "H-hey didn't you just hear what I said?" he asked a little disappointed in my reaction probably.

I nodded. Well, I didn't really mean to keep it a secret, but things just got complicated when I didn't, so I'm a bit more relived that someone figured it out.

"But it made sense! Bianca said that you and Takezo always seem to understand each other despite you not talking, and I remembered how all the way in a different region, I read an article about a Brain Frontier named Annabelle that had the ability to talk to other Pokémon without saying a word! So the only way you two would still act so close was if you had that ability! Aren't I right!?"

I just nodded again.

"... That's so cool!" He shouted then he started blathering at the speed of Bianca. "Think of all the tactical advantages you could have if you could talk empathetically to your Pokémon!" His Munna clamped on his head without him noticing. "You could have faster commands, trick your opponent, your mute disability is actual an advantage since people will wonder how you give out commands! But I thought you were trying to keep it a secret, but since you didn't act startled, doesn't that mean you didn't know what that was? Maybe—"

Wow, I expected him to be either angry or shocked about my ability, not be jealous of it. I guess we both had odd reactions to each other.

… Wow, he sure is talking really fast now.

And he isn't stopping...

... Umm...

Huh? What was that about a guy named Wilhelm Wundt?

OK, I think this is getting too far, "_Musha, please grab his attention. I need to talk to him_."

"**But his dreams! He's like a magic buffet! … It's like a buffet… that's Magic!**" The way the Pokémon whined was like that of a really small child begging for a shiny new toy.

Black was suddenly going on about tactics about mental warfare and history of something called the black box while I was trying to grab his attention. "_Do it later._"

"**Aww… here goes…**" The pink dream Pokémon sadly said before making his eyes glow.

"OW!" Black cried and Musha went off his head. "What was that for?" He looked to his Pokémon, to which the Pokémon pointed to me and my un-amused face. "Oh right, since you can actually talk to Pokémon and stuff, I figured we'd get to the actual battling! Go, Brav, start us off with Air Slash!"

Wait what!?

*BOOM!*

[Later.]

It turned out that Black was trying to give me a crash course on how battling would work against Gym Leaders and other skilled trainers. (Though some heads up would have been nice!) Learning about other Pokémon, strategy, skill, and etcetera are mandatory if you want to win against a Gym Leader. He told me a lot of tricks and tips during a fight and before and after. He also gave me some information about the Striation Gym Leaders since he already won their challenge.

As for the battle between Brav and Takezo, it was very one sided in Brav's favor. Being a closed ranged fighter, all Brav had to do was keep high and spam Air Slash. Eventually, Takezo got tired and I had to surrender for him. However, let's just say that Takezo and I didn't come out without a constellation prize.

Black gave me a hint in saying that since Takezo was a normal type Pokémon he could potentially learn a good ranged attack if you taught him to from a TM or something else. He told me to keep an eye out for those.

After healing both of our Pokémon, Tracey called us in for breakfast. However, Black asked me a huge favor: not to tell anyone else about my empathetic ability.

I took out my note pad to try question his reasoning, "Why?"

Black looked around, checking to see if anyone was watching. "It will keep everyone guessing and… look, if you really can also talk with Pokémon its best if you keep quiet about it… I can't give you a specific reason, but I think you can help me out with a problem that's been bugging me for a while…"

I don't know what he's talking about, but it seems all kinds of shady. I felt myself rising with anger, anger that seemed more than necessary in this event. I scribbled madly on a note pad while hearing a vague, cruel laughter at the back of my head. I finish writing and show what I wrote down to him. "Black, I don't like being kept in the dark about this… but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt first. If you break it, I don't care how strong you think or want to be, I will find a way to make you pay for it."

Black read it before he chuckled nervously before rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah… sorry about that, but thanks, I appreciate it," He sighed in relief before walking ahead. "Come on then, let's go, Bianca probably eat our share by now."

Ugh, now I feel like a jerk for being so angry at him. Seriously, why did I do that?

I felt someone tugging at my pants and I looked down to see Takezo staring calmly at me. "**Anto, are you alright?**" Takezo asked me.

"_No… I think I got angry at Black for almost no reason… I need to apologize for that; I don't know what came over me._"

"**What did you two talk about?**"

I told him what happened, what Black figured out, what he asked me to do, even about the odd laughter in my head.

Takezo seemed to ponder more about what I said was the laughter in my head. He must have assumed it was a memory of mine because he later said, "**… The more we try to find your memories, the more confusing this seems.**" He pondered with his eyes closed.

…

"**Still…**" He unfolded his arms. "**From what you told me, I'm assuming your memory seems to react to certain stimulants. Whenever you are in a situation, be it small or large, one memory from your life seems to resurface. Yet, they are all randomized; so far, it seems as if your memories that come back are related to your life, but come from different points that are not in any chronological order.**"

"… _That was kind of wordy, but I get what you're saying. That's actually a good observation. So basically, if I keep going on this adventure and face with different situations, then I will eventually remember all of my memories..._" Hold up, does that mean I have to potentially risk my life over and over again?

…

No way, right? I mean, what are the chances of something like that actually happening? Hahahaha…

Pfft, I-I mean, it's not like these situations will always be either awkward or dangerous (sometimes both) in order to stimulate my memories… right?

Thankfully, Detective Takezo continues to analyze deeper into the subject. "**However, I'm still confused as to how you lost those memories in the first place. This 'company' that the Snagger Wes mentioned maybe tied with that odd machine you fell out off. The most curious part of that actually… is the fact that the 'memories' you regained when remembering the Snag Machines only came back up when it was mentioned by the Gym Leaders. Those memories seem different to you because they were actually visions, where other times you would 'hear' your memories. It looks as if your visual and oral stimulants are separated.**"

He blathered a bit again, but he made me realize something; I seem to have two ways to remember something.

My Visual and Audio memories are not always the same.

My memories of a girl's voice are clear, but her image is blurry, and that was when I was looking at the harmonica.

But whenever the Gym Leaders said team Snagem, I received a flash of vivid memories, but no audio.

"Hey, Anto, what's taking you so long?!" Black cried out from ahead.

"**Let's talk about this another time, I think we should go.**" Takezo ended the conversation and walked ahead with me following behind.

When I caught up to Black, I immediately apologized, but he was very easy going and said he didn't really mind before he dismissed it almost too quickly.

I really can't help but wonder what I got myself into...

We went into a large dining hall and saw Bianca, Tracey, and White eating. Bianca cried over and waved to us. "Hefy bwhys!" She said before actually swallowing her meal. "Sorry, hey guys! Come on, the food's amazing!"

"Black, was that you screaming this morning?" Tracey asked us.

"Yes, it was!" Black cheerily explained. He looked around the room but it looked like he was searching for something missing. "Hey where's Cilan, Chili, and Cress?"

"They already left at the crack of dawn to get back to the gym," White explained. "Oh right, Anto, You're going to be facing Cilan later this afternoon with a one on one. Good luck on that."

Huh? 'Good Luck'? The way she said that means…

Gimme a sec… "Aren't you guys going to watch?"

"Oh!" I looked toward Black as he realized something. "Sorry, Anto, but all of us here already got that badge. We were heading to the next city before we all got caught up with helping Fennel and the whole Team Snagem business. But if you keep practicing like I told you, I'm sure we'll meet again in the League."

I'm a little disappointed, but it can't really be helped.

"Don't worry, Anto," Tracey spoke out. "I'll be there cheering you on!"

I gave him a nod showing him my thanks before finally sitting down and enjoying lunch.

[Afterward.]

Tracey and I said our goodbyes to Bianca, Black, and White. They were heading back to Fennel's lab before splitting up as well.

As of now, I was standing and staring at the Striation Gym's entrance. I was starting to have second thoughts about this idea.

Tracey came from behind and patted me on the shoulder. "You'll do great, I know you will." And gave me a boost of confidence.

I looked to Takezo, who took out his wooden blade. I wasn't surprised he was already calm and ready for a fight. In fact, he gave me a reassuring smile.

I finally pushed open the doors and was greeted by Cress and Chili.

Both of them bowed politely. Cress opened up with, "Ah, our guest of honor has finally arrived."

"Allow us a special service as a token of appreciation for what you've done for us and our city." Chili added. The two of them motioned me in like their master, which felt really cool. The lead me to the battlefield where Cilan was standing in the opposite side, composed and showing a rather determined and fierce look.

I couldn't help but smile as his eyes met with mine. It was like he was excited for this fight and I felt myself pumped up for this action.

Takezo jumped into the battlefield, sword ready. If what Black told me was true, he'll use his Pansage in order to fight Takezo. He told me to watch out for his moves and pay close attention the movements and agility of the grass type. Black told me that Takezo should be able to keep up with him, and as long as I keep close range to prevent Cilan's Pansage from using any long range moves, I would win.

Cilan grabs his Pokéball. "Come on out, Crustle!"

What?

Gym Leader say who now?

"(Cru! Crustle!) **HA! Ready to Roll, Cilan!**"

… That's not a Pansage.

"Are you ready, Anto? I know your mute, but I'm not going to hold back any punches! So give me one flavorful battle—huh? … Anto are you alright?"

That lying backstabber!

"**Anto that is not the Pansage you told me we were to fight.**"

"_Kind of in shock, gimme a sec._"

"Oh! Were you expecting me to send out Pansage?" Cilan told me as he snapped his fingers. Before clicking his tongue and shaking his head. "I had a feeling Black might try and teach you some tricks when he and my brother, Cress, had their battle. But this gym focuses on the fundamental principle of overcoming basic obstacles. None of us have a direct type advantage against a normal type like Takezo, but I've paid attention to how he fights: purely a physical fighter. That's something that my Crustle completely shuts down. It may seem unfair, but gym battles are not to be taken lightly! Crustle, Rock Slide!"

Crap! "_Takezo, avoid those things!_"

"**Were you simply expecting me to just stand and let those hit me?!**" Takezo cried as he dodged several boulders summoned from the sky for the sole purpose of crushing him. "**I have common sense to avoid danger, Anto. You are the one that is supposed to tell me when to strike!**"

Err, right, I don't always have to yell dodge… why did I do that? I gotta focus: our first plan was thrown out the window because Cilan had a better strategy. (Cilan: Rock Wrecker!) Crustle was chosen in order to completely shut down Takezo's attack power, (Takezo dodged the larger boulder attack by sliding under several other fallen rocks from the initial attack.) But not his mobility!

"_Takezo, circle around Crustle! Get close to him as possible, but don't attack him!_"

Getting away from those long range attacks are a good start.

Takezo nodded and quickly used the recharge time of Rock Wrecker to close the gap between the two of them. But it looked like Crustle was well raised to quickly recover from the energy for that attack.

Wait, what's that smile on Cilan's face for? …!? "_Takezo, something's coming!_"

"Crustle, Shell Smash into X-scissor!"

Crustle came out of his shell like a bullet and quickly went straight for Takezo, but my warning was enough for my little friend to wield his blade and clash a Cut attack with the X-scissor.

Still, he parried the attack, not the force that came from the attack. The poor guy was pushed a large distance back from the power behind Crustle's launch. Takezo crashed into one of the fallen Rock Slide boulders, but he quickly got back—

Oh, snap his blade broke!

"… **I should have prepared better. It has been a while since I last renewed my blade.**" Takezo calmly said as he threw away the two broken pieces of wood.

He may have been showing off, but that attack really looked like it hurt. Even though the attack was parried, the power wasn't.

"Come on, Anto, this is turning out to be too easy!" Cilan taunted from across the field.

But what can I do? (Cilan: Crustle, Rock Slide Again!) If Takezo tried to get close again, he would just use that stupid Shell Smash—X-scissor combo, but if he's kept too far, he starts launching Rock Slides and Rock Wreckers! Takezo doing fine now, but he's not going to do this forever!

OK, think strategy and adaption to my opponent is Key; Black said I seemed 'moderate' in that department.

"**Anto, he's using the Rock Slides to restrict my movement! At this rate, he shall corner me within a few more usages!**"

Oh that's just not fair! Black didn't tell me about this… and worse of all that 'constellation prize' was just a defensive technique…

Wait…

Oh, I have got to find more creative ways to do this…

But as they say, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

"_Takezo, there is one thing we can do, but it requires lighting fast reflexes… again._"

"**I'm sensing a repeating pattern of repeating patterns here…**" Takezo dryly called out after sliding right between two boulders. "**But do it anyway!**"

"_Charge right for Crustle!_"

Takezo jumped off, racing towards the bug in the rock.

I quickly glanced over to Cilan, he seemed to notice something was off—shoot—but it looked like he had to take the bait. "Crustle, Shell Smash and X-scissor again!"

Yes! "_Takezo, Detect!_"

Takezo's eyes glowed blue and barely dodged the large swipe radius by the exposed Pokémon by ducking under the X formation.

"_Now, head inside his shell!_"

Crustle swept over Takezo, flying more than he should, and ended up a large distance from both him and Takezo, but that was what I was going for. Crustle was a lot faster without that massive shell of his, but Takezo was still able to slide inside Crustle's shell where he used to be.

"_Alright Takezo, do what you need to do because_ _now the fun part comes: Cilan's next move._"

If I'm playing it right, which I pray to whatever being that I am, he's got one option to take.

"Stealing my shell? That's unique," Cilan complemented. "But now, you're a sitting duck, so we'll take that chance! Crustle, Rock Wrecker!"

Bingo, "_Takezo, Detect!_"

For a few milliseconds, it was really cool to see a pair of intimidating blue eyes glowing brightly inside the dark corners of Crustle's shell before Takezo was seen sliding out just fast enough to barely miss the Rock Wrecker slamming into the Shell.

The surprised look on Cilan's face was a sight for sore eyes. "Wha-what?! But you already used Detect, so the chances of it working again should have dramatically decreased!"

I give him a wide smile. Cilan's stance stiffens since I think he knows that I knew… right?

"Now what's that smile for? Takezo maybe fast, but Crustle is more than powered up enough to overpower him even without his defenses! Crustle, X-scissor!"

Once more, Crustle launched himself to Takezo, faster than before since it's his second time using that Shell Smash boost, but I'm not going to risk another Detect—heck no! I've been waiting for that.

"_Takezo, Cut!_"

Takezo raised his right arm and slashed vertically to clash with the X-scissor. The two attacks clashed again, but this time, we prepared for it!

"(RrrrrRAAATT!) **HhhhyyyYYAAAH!**" Takezo yelled, forcing more power into his footing in order to force Crustle away.

Once again, Cilan, and apparently the audience, were shocked to see Takezo evenly matched in power with Crustle when the first attempt showed that Crustle overpowered the little guy.

"H-how did?" Cilan asked dumfounded.

"_Let's kick him while he's down, Takezo, Swords Dance!_"

I just enjoyed the look on everyone's face when they saw Takezo moving his arms and a small light show of blades moved along with his arms. Everyone seemed to get it now.

"Swords Dance?! Takezo knew Swords Dance? But wait when did he use—oh you sneaky Garbodor!" Cilan cried out with a bewildered smile. "That's why you hid in the shell in the first place, in order to set up Swords Dance! Since Takezo is small, he must have space to perform that set up! But you had me blast away one of my only defenses to protect against it—wow, I'm not even mad that's genius!" He said as he thought of it all.

"_It's only genius if it works! Takezo finish it, Cut!_"

Cilan noticed Takezo charge right for Crustle. There was only one thing left to do, I knew it, and I forced him to do it.

"Crustle, X-scissor!"

Both Pokémon clashed again, but the difference between them was that at two stacks of Shell Smash, Crustle's attack power equaled to one stack of Swords Dance on Takezo, not to mention Takezo has had way more experience in close range combat that probably even a fighting Pokémon.

Lastly, despite seriously boosting both speed and power, Crustle's defenses have plummeted to very low levels despite the type resistance.

A loud thud silenced the battlefield. The fight was over.

Cress raised his hand. "And the winner is… Anto!"

What? Takezo did all the work, I just helped.

I looked over to the audience to see both Tracey and Chili clapping their hands.

I just smiled and walked over to Takezo, who was gasping for breath as he sat down collapsed on the ground. I kneeled over and gave him a smile. "_Good hustle out there, little guy. Next time, let's try ending the fight in one shot-knock out, eh?_"

"**You… let us see you fight… against someone that can shoot… unlimited boulders at you.**" Good to see Takezo's still got his wits about him.

[Later.]

"In honor of you victory, I present to you the Trio Badge showing the proof of victory here in the Striation Gym."

Cool, it's shiny.

"And I also present to you, a Gym Badge Case to keep all of your badges in." Cilan finished.

I happily accept the items.

"Though I need to ask," Cilan looked at me with a confused expression. "How exactly were you able to command your Pokémon without saying a word? With all due respect to Takezo, it seemed rather hard for him to do all of that on his own. Not to mention the fact that I saw him look over to you several times during our fight, like he was also waiting for some kind of command… how did you and Black work around the mute problem?"

I couldn't help but put my index finger on my lips to show him a hush sign. I laughed afterward—well tried to. Still, sound was never the point in laughing… I think.

I said my goodbyes to the triplet Gym Leaders as Tracey and I started making our way to the next city, the next gym, Nacrene City.

I'll keep it a secret for now, of course a piece of me just knows that secrets lead to trouble.

But then again… Takezo did tell me that trouble has an odd way of stimulating my memory.

Huh, guess I'm starting to get addicted to the rush of adrenaline.

I wonder of that's a bad thing?

"**I can't believe I have to fight seven more of those fights…**" Takezo commented as he walked beside us, keeping a fast pace as usual to keep with our long strides with those tiny little legs of his.

"_Ahh don't worry about it, I'm planning to go and catch some Pokémon this time, because apparently just having you for one just isn't challenging enough._"

I smile back at him and he back at me.

It's really nice to have a friend like this, if only i could include Tracey in this conversation.

"So Anto," Speak of the evil, "Think you could tell me your secret in telling Takezo what to do?"

I took out a note pad and a pen. "_Sorry, Tracey, but I promised Black not to tell anyone._"

Tracey seemed a little disappointed, but he doesn't seem too bothered by it. He gave me a stern, almost detective like look. "… Alright, so let's go to Nacrene City. We should get there if we follow the path in Route 3. If I recall, Ash once told me that it was a Normal type gym…"

Hmm… again with this 'Ash'. I wonder, "Hey, Tracey, could you tell me more about this Ash Ketchum? In fact, why do you and Cilan seem to talk about him so much?"

Tracey smiled a huge, dorky smile before telling me one amazing and grand tale.

{Third Person P.O.V.}

Anto listened intently to the tale of how Tracey began his career as a Pokémon Watcher, how he met Ash Ketchum and his friends, and what happened when he met with Professor Oak.

But he didn't just stop there, Tracey told him the individuals who helped save the world with the help of Professor Oak's Pokédex. He told them about a boy named Red and how he became Champion of Kanto and the adventures he and his rivals and friends had.

Anto was able to translate and tell Takezo the same tales as he was being told them as well.

However, little did the group know that they were being followed.

A cautious young boy, wearing a blue overcoat, and followed by both an Espeon and Umbreon were not too far in following that small group walking ahead of them.

…

And little did _they_ know that they too were being followed: they were being followed by someone(s?) who was following them because they were following the original group that the followers were following.

So the follower was following the first follower that was following after the first group because the follower was following the group first, but decided to follow the first follower because he was following them.

Follow?

Good.

Because we're not done with the crazy yet.

Not by a long shot.


	6. Ep 6: How To Not Meet New People

Anto's Bizarre Adventure Chapter 6: Someone should really diagnose unluckiness as a sickness.

Anto was having trouble. He tried his best to scribble down what he was feeling, but it wasn't working.

Anto flipped over the note pad.

"Upupup!" Tracey told Anto as he grabbed the notepad.

Anto quickly tried to get the notepad back, but the older boy simply out maneuvered the struggling amnesiac.

Anto glared at Tracey, showing him a face that read all too well, 'Give it back!'

Tracey chuckled. "Come on Anto, I'm sure your sketch wasn't that bad," Tracey assured him. As he turned back the page. His brow rose up higher than it should have as he took a confused look at the attempt of drawing a nearby Pidove.

"Did… err…" Trace struggled to comment. "Did Pidoves always have five beaks? I mean, we at least know that you weren't an artist before you lost your memory! Haha…"

The older boy tried his very best not to hurt the younger boy's feelings. However, Tracey knew that he already had done a poor job of hiding the fact Anto sucked at drawing more than a baby Teddiursa would suck its paw.

The un-amused and embarrassed look in the amnesiac's face was barely seen as he hung his head down in shame.

The two of them were taking a break somewhere along Route 3. Takezo was off gathering berries of his own while Tracey's Pokémon, Marill, Venonuat, and Scyther, were eating a special ingredient of Pokémon food made from a friend in Pewter City.

The two humans were relaxing on a surprisingly cloudy day. It was dark enough to almost think it would be an early night, but Tracey's cellphone showed that it was a little over noon.

Tracey had the idea that he could help Anto regain some of his memories by trying to expose him to any stimulants. In other words, he sort of experimented with Anto.

For Anto; however, he thought Tracey was using that as an excuse to have all the chores pushed to him.

He set up the tent last night, had to go fetch firewood with Takezo, had to set up the table, had to start fire—which accidentally turned sour when Anto accidentally set himself on fire, had Tracey's Marill drench him with a Water Gun, had to stay inside the tent with nothing but a blanket while he waited for his clothes to dry and while everyone else was eating dinner without him, had his tent actually fall on top of him by accidentally moving around too much, had to re make the tent _again_(even with Tracey's help), all before finally falling asleep in a sleeping bag… without a pillow.

And what memories came back after all of that?

Nothing. Nada. Bumpkin. Zero.

Tracey patted Anto's back to show the younger boy that it was alright. Yet, he also noticed that Anto really did seem worried. Tracey had seen something like that before; he figured that Anto seemed to be hiding something from him.

He wanted him to tell him what the matter was—err write down what was wrong, but the boy seemed hesitant to say—he meant scribble something down. There were instances where Anto looked like he wanted to tell—dang it, write—him something, especially after regaling his tales with Ash and Misty, but the boy would seem to hold himself back.

'Anto must really be going through a lot though. I mean waking up after being attacked and ending up attracting all kinds of strange trouble? Now he's going on a journey all over the continent in order to help find his memories? … Now that I think about it this really seems like a bad idea to put some amnesiac through.'

Tracey thought, but then he remembered the Gym battle with Cilian and Anto. Tracey had actually encouraged the nervous boy that the idea would work.

And the more he thought about it, the more he actually felt bad as he realized a new flaw in his plan that he didn't account for earlier. Did he really take the ability to go into the Pokémon League that lightly? He had seen Ash Ketchum train almost as often as he breathed, probably even more, in order to even enter the league and he's never even won it.

True, their plan was simply to get in the league rather than win it, but the league only accepts the best of the best, which Anto, sadly, didn't seem to have the enthusiasm or even the drive to actually pull it off.

Tracey then recalled the actual fight between the gymleader and the boy. 'But… Anto looks like he really wants to try it… Is that why he's so hesitant to talk to me about something? Does he not want to hurt my feelings about the plan I made?'

A thought like that made Tracey pale. Despite the unusual knack to get into trouble that seemed to rival that of his former traveling partners, and his annoyed attitude when faced with problems, Anto really seemed to be a gentle soul. He showed remorse when he accidentally ran over some man named Ghetsis, actually decided to help some gangsters twice even though they almost were about to beat him the same two times, and seemed to protect Bianca and the others during the fight with Team Snagem.

If Anto really didn't want to say anything to hurt his own feelings, then that would mean Tracey was just pushing his idea to help without really considering the boy's feelings.

Tracey quickly thought back. It wasn't like Anto had said no to the idea or showed any signs of going against the plan…

Wait.

He couldn't speak out.

And writing is technically different from speaking. Tracey did imagine that writing instead of talking would have some trouble really expressing feelings to other people.

Being mute would also cause Anto to retreat more on his own thoughts since he did express a few times that he felt like he could speak before his amnesia.

'Calm down Tracey, maybe you're over thinking this,' Tracey thought, but he did admit that Anto wasn't telling him everything.

Tracey then found out his right hand had been subconsciously rubbing his forehead. His mind suddenly clicked at the mundane action.

"I haven't done that since…"

Anto looked back at Tracey who seemed to be focused on rubbing his forehead.

Tracey saw this and immediately gave back Anto's notebook. "W-well! It's alright Anto, we were all beginners at one point!"

Anto raised his brow at the older boy. He wondered why he suddenly he seemed nervous for some reason.

"Marill? (**Huh?**)"

Anto and Tracey looked to Marill who was looking towards a nearby brush. There was a small rustling before Takezo came back with two new wooden blades and a batch of berries.

Anto smiled and waved at Takezo. "_Yo! Takezo!_"

The Patrat smiled before making his way to the boy.

However, Tracey also had some thoughts about the other new companion he traveled with.

Tracey noticed something odd about the Patrat: he seemed to avoid the company of other Pokémon.

Tracey has studied Pokémon for a long time, and he's known more about Pokémon straight from the mouth of the famous Professor Oak himself. He knows that smaller Pokémon, like Bidoof, Zigzagoon, Patrats, and other Pokémon much like them tend to stay in close packs to survive the wilderness.

Yet Takezo's character showed a form of independence, but he also showed a form of repulsion with other Pokémon. He didn't know if Anto saw this, but rather than hang around with the other Pokémon, Takezo would always make his way besides Anto or even himself when Anto was absent.

If a Pokémon like Takezo always seemed to prefer humans than Pokémon, not to mention his rather unique combat prowess, then wouldn't that mean… Takezo once belonged to another trainer?

Or maybe, Takezo truly was there before Anto lost his memory. That would explain why such a fierce little Pokémon would continue to stay with a random amnesiac.

Of course that was highly unlikely since Anto seemed very certain that Takezo wasn't his Pokémon beforehand.

But then how did they seem to bond so well?

Another loud sound interrupted Tracey's thoughts about his two companions.

However, the difference this time was both Scyther and Takezo jumping out blades ready while Venonat and Marill where jumping up and down frantically, pointing at another rustling bush, but this time it looked far more frantic.

"_Takezo, what's going on!?_"

"**Something is in bound. I sense something wrong. I do not understand how it got here past Marill's and Venonat's radar abilities!**" The Pokémon yelled in the front line.

"**I didn't hear anything! Now that I think about it, it kinda feels like something is lowering our range!**" Marill explained.

"**I-I think I felt this feeling before!**" Venonat cried.

The bush rustled once more, forcing Scyther and Takezo to stiffen their battle stances. Both Tracey and Anto raced to their Pokémon's ready to help out their respective partners.

The rustling stopped and something came out of the bushes.

The group couldn't help but feel shocked at what was in front of them.

It was a girl.

An injured girl.

She was wearing some odd red and blue get up while wearing goggles on the top of her head above her brown hair.

She looked horrible, not as horrible as Anto was when he was first found, but still…

Tracey snapped out of the shock first. "Anto, check to see if she's fine, but don't move her! I'll get the first aid kit!"

As Tracey, Anto, and their Pokémon started moving again, one onlooker a little farther from their campsite was paying a little more attention to the girl's odd device strapped on her arm.

"A Pokémon Ranger?"

[Later.]

_It screamed, wailed, roared._

_Streaks of white tore across the darkness, ripping apart the light._

_Two of three powerful protectors fell._

_The last one was told to flee._

_The Protector refused, they would never give up._

_But the monster was strange._

_Or was it sadistic?_

_The first monster forced the last guardian away, honoring the wishes of the two it fell._

_Pain coursed through the last hero's body, wounds aching like never before._

_The last thing the protector heard were the voices of kind beings coming to its aid before falling into unconsciousness._

Anto couldn't help but think the girl looked familiar to him.

But then again, he couldn't help but feel everyone was familiar to him.

To be fair, almost every other person he met around his age seemed to trigger some kind of nostalgic feeling in the amnesiac's mind and it was really annoying!

Maybe there was some brain damage in his head or something that caused this feeling.

Anto sighed.

He sat in the tent watching the girl after they bandaged her up. Tracey went with Marill and Venonat to find some more water while Takezo and Scyther were waiting outside incase whatever attacked this girl showed up again.

There were claw marks and scratches around her arms, as if she was protecting herself from something.

Pokémon aren't known to be violent to humans. So what could have caused this?

The girl seemed to be having a nightmare as she moaned and moved in her sleep.

"_I hope she's alright._" Anto thought.

It was around that time, Anto heard a soft—almost computer like booting up noise somewhere nearby.

He looked to her scarf, goggles, and odd wrist device that they placed away in order to bandage her up. Said odd device was booting up and lighting up.

"A Patrat and Scyther detected," The machine said. "Alert: Please re attach Capture Styler!"

Capture Styler, a device used by Pokémon Rangers to allow their feelings to properly reach other wild Pokémon in order to befriend them and ask for their assistance.

…

How… how did Anto know about that?

He heard a sound—moaning. He looked backed to see the girl slowly waking up.

Anto leaned in closer to her, trying to see how she was doing.

The girl slowly opened her chocolate colored eyes. She blinked several times at Anto, her vision starting to work again.

"… Ben?"

Anto tilted his head. Who was this 'Ben' she just called him?

Anto quickly looked away and got some chocolate. Tracey told him that he should offer her some if she woke up with him alone just to ease things a little.

The girl seemed to finally have her senses and her comprehension straightened out as she stared at the back of Anto's head. She had no idea where she was, she didn't know who that boy was, and this all worried her.

"Wait, you're not him… who are you?" She asked as she got up. Then she was surprised to see a chocolate bar handed to her. "Huh?"

In his hand, Anto had a notepad written out, "Hello, my name is Anto. I am unfortunately mute, so I can't talk to you properly. My friend, Tracey, and I found you injured, so we took care of you. By the way, eat the chocolate. I heard it will make you feel better."

The girl cautiously read the post before mouthing an 'O' as she read the mute part. She giggled as she finished the last sentence and took the chocolate bar from Anto. "Thank you, Anto. My name is Summer, I am a Pokémon Ranger." The girl bowed lightly after introducing herself.

"_Wow she has a nice smile—where did that come from?_" Anto thought in his head. He handed her a bottle of water which she graciously accepted.

"Thank you, Anto." She smiled.

Anto was starting to blush. It looked like he was just bad with girls in general and now he was all alone in a cramped space with a defenseless girl!

…

"_Takezo, I need you here now!_" Anto yelled in his mind as he glared where his partner would be.

The little Pokémon poked his head in the entrance. "**Are you done mating yet?**"

Anto's eyes narrowed.

"_I despise you._"

"Oh, a Patrat…" Summer said as she and Takezo came closer to each other. "Wow, you're eyes are so big!" She raised her hand to pet the Patrat, but it was around this time she was fully aware of the bandages around her arm.

Her eyes widened; all the events of prior to her awakening and meeting Anto flooded her mind instantly. "Jack! Keith!" She snapped her head in the direction of where her goggles, scarf, and Capture Styler were before grabbing them and sprinting out of the tent.

"I'm sorry Anto, I need to go!" She yelled after startling the Scyther.

"_What, hey!?_" Anto yelled and went after her. "_Takezo, come on!_"

"**Hold, what are you two doing?!**" Tracey's Scyther asked.

Anto quickly looked back. "_Scyther, stay here or go tell Tracey we left!_"

Scyther's expression then showed surprise. "**How did you speak to me? D-did you also understand me?!**"

"_I'll explain later; I need to follow Summer! She's still injured!_" Anto thought as he ran after her.

Scyther shook his head then quickly sped in the direction Tracey left. Anto and Takezo then quickly dashed after the direction Summer went.

If any of them would have waited just a few more seconds, they would have seen several figures quickly following behind Anto and Takezo.

"**Why is she running from us to begin with!?**" Takezo cried as he followed Anto.

"_She suddenly screamed two names: Jack and Keith! Those two must have been with her before she was injured, but somehow they separated! I think she's looking for them because they might be in a worse shape than she was!_" Anto theorized as they continued running. Still, even with her injuries, Summer was still racing past the two of them. Anto secretly wondered what kind of training that Pokémon Rangers must go through.

"_Dang, she is fast!_"

"**I concur. Quite the trained human; why is that so few of you humans train your bodies like we Pokémon? …!?**"

"_I wonder if she know where she's even going?_"

"Ah!"

"**Hyah!**"

A loud sound came from up ahead, as well as some voice that both Takezo and Anto did not hear before. They both looked at each other and nodded.

"_You go ahead!_"

"**With all of my might,**" Takezo answered as he drew all his blades and raced ahead faster than Anto.

Takezo hopped of trees and ended up heading into a clearing, at the speed he was going, he recognized Summer sitting on the ground and a figure about to attack her. Mid air, Takezo gripped his blades and aimed right for her attacker.

"**Cut!**" Takezo yelled as he dual slashed the being above Summer, but Takezo was surprised to see both of his blades blocked with a hand—a blue hand!

"**A Sawk?!**" Takezo cried as he realized the Pokémon that he had just attacked.

"**Oh, now that was tight! Alright then little man, prepare for a smack down!**" The Sawk proclaimed before moving his hand and forcing Takezo back to the ground.

Takezo was surprised at the sheer force he was thrown off and ended up sliding on the ground a good distance away.

Takezo readied both of his blades if his opponent was powerful enough to block his strike just now. But Takezo's sharp, red eyes widened in sheer shock as he took a better look at the Sawk that was his opponent.

The Sawk had only **one** arm!

"**W-what?**" Takezo dropped his blades as he stared at the empty air where his left arm should have been. The left arm in question looked as if it didn't even exist, it lead the samurai to believe that this Sawk must have been born handicapped.

"**Dude, hey—eyes up here, right to my fist.**"

The blue humanoid looking Pokémon called out as he launched his right fist like a bullet. Takezo barely dodged the fist, but felt the strong rush of wind beside his face. He didn't realize that it made him start to sweat; no, he was too busy quickly reacting with a counter attack a split second right after dodging said the fighting Pokémon's fist passed by.

Takezo swung his entire body and slammed the arm away with both of his blades then cart wheeled backwards several paces away. When he landed he spun both of his blades in an aesthetic fashion. The Sawk's eyes widened as he realized that the wooden blades he was moving around were hiding the subtle blades of light around him.

The Sawk smiled excitedly as he tightened his fist and posed his legs. Both Pokémon knew that Takezo was powering up and both of them new that the Sawk was letting him power up.

Suddenly, a small device quickly started spinning around the Sawk. The two Pokémon looked to see Summer with her stylus mid capturing sequence.

"**Ya picked a wrong time to rustle with my tussle, Human.**" The Sawk glared as he suddenly moved his feet in a quick motion. He used his toes to scoop up a nearby stone and lifted/kicked it into the air. Then he spun and side kicked/slammed the rock at the capture disc which canceled the capture attempt.

Summer backed off for a sec and took a second to re calibrate the retuning capture disk. But as she re aimed it back at the one armed Sawk, Takezo jumped between the two.

Letting down her capture sytler, Summer stared in shock at the two in front of her. Takezo was making some kind of sign telling her to stop. Summer realized the two Pokémon were glaring down each other, but the Sawk had a much more elated grin as he stared down Takezo.

Those two… were about to fight.

Takezo moved first, spinning both wooden blades in the palm of his hands before charging at speeds that would put even the fastest electric Pokémon to shame right for the Sawk.

Whack!

Takezo slammed both blades into the left neck side of the Sawk, a place not as heavily defended due to his opponent's handicap. However, Takezo's eyes widened in surprise again. He felt the entire body of the Sawk tense the second right after impact. The Sawk held his stance and allowed the blow of the fast strike. Holding strong, the Sawk valiantly held his ground from the blow of the attack and motioned his right arm back for a wind up.

"**Ya gots to do better than that!**" The Sawk half-mocked quickly before throwing one of the fastest punches Takezo had ever seen. If Takezo had not used Detect mid air to turn his entire body and motion the punch downward, then it would been him instead of the ground that cracked and shook from the heavy impact.

The Sawk's grin only grew at the last second dodge from the smaller Pokémon. With his one right fist on the ground, he opened it up and shifted his entire weight on his arm, forcing his entire body to be thrown down with the momentum of his punch. The reason why he did this was so he could position his legs to axe kick Takezo from a one handed flip.

Takezo couldn't dodge this attack, but he pushed his blades to counter the blow from the whipping foot. Allowing him to fly away and land another good distance away from him.

Takezo swung both his blades into a cross behind him before charging once more in a flurry of slashes this time aimed right for the feet and legs since the smaller Pokémon wouldn't try attacking foolish above the waist again or risk being isolated in the air.

Instead of fleeing, the Sawk jumped lightly in the air and proceded to use his feet to side or round house kick the little creature in the ground.

Suddenly the fight became very aesthetically dangerous as both of them started kicking a large amount of dust around them, either by kicking at the ground or by rolling along said ground to avoid kick and slashes.

Summer stared in awe in those moves. None of that at all looked like an actual Pokémon battle, but something straight out of a kung fu movie! What was with these Pokémon?

She heard more rustle coming out of the bushes and saw Anto bursting out of one of the thick bushes.

And tripping on a rock.

And… tumbling fast and painfully right towards the two well martially versatile Pokémon…

Summer _really_ should have done more than simply crying out his name in horror, "Anto!"

But that also caught the attention of said two Pokémon who both of which froze in a position where the Sawk had caught one of Takezo's blades mid air. This allowed the sprawling, flying Anto to slamming into both of them.

"_Oh god, my head…_" Anto managed to think as the world around him stopped spinning around him.

But then he noticed his view seemed to suddenly elevate a good four feet higher than he was originally. No wait, his brain was rebooting his common sense function again. He was apparently being raised off the ground.

Now his emotions just kicked back in. "_Wait, what!?_" Looking down, Anto saw a one armed Sawk lifting him off the ground.

"**Ya got a lot of nerve charging right for us, I can respect that.**"

Anto moved his eyes down at the voice to see a one armed Sawk raising him with his one arm.

"**But I accept your challenge to fight me, bro!**"

"_I'm sorry, what did you think I just did?_"

"**YAAAHHH!**" the Sawk then proceeded to throw Anto face first into the ground.

Both Takezo, who was getting back up, and Summer cringed after they saw the slightly shorter Pokémon throw the boy into the ground.

"_OOGAH!_" Anto cried as he half bounced on the floor and rolled slightly away in pain.

"**Anto, for the love of the Legendaries, how do you keep getting yourself in these situations?!**" Takezo complained.

"_I don't do it on purpose if that's what you're implying!_" Anto managed to think back despite his face being in excessive pain. He flipped over to his front to see the Sawk about to punch him in the face.

Acting on instinct, Anto moved his head to avoid the blow, while motioning his hand to one of his pockets.

The Sawk once more retracted his hand, but then Anto threw something at the blue humanoid Pokémon.

Ding!

One of Anto's newly given Great Ball.

The enhanced Pokéball fell to the ground and proceeded to flash red as it attempted capture.

However, Anto had the idea of quickly body slamming the thing mid capture and suddenly tying his jacket around it.

"Anto, what are you doing?" Summer asked in a dumbfounded manner.

Anto was not letting this Pokémon come out and attack him out of the blue again. He was going to make sure it wouldn't come out even if it meant forcing the ball down so he wouldn't come out. Of course Anto didn't know that it wouldn't work.

The ball stopped moving, but it didn't make the sound of the ding that signaled it's capture. Anto quickly forced down the Great Ball as something tried to open. The ball actually started trashing around, but Anto refused to let the blasted thing open.

The strange event just clicked in Summer's head as she saw Anto flailing around to keeo the sphere clamped. "Wait, you can actually force a Pokémon in a Pokeball like that?" She asked then realized no one has ever really _done anything_ while the Pokéball was in the capturing process.

"_Stay in you, one armed—wait, I can't make fun of someone handicapped—dang it!" _Anto complained as the ball made him jerk hard to the right.

Meanwhile, a little away from the whole event, a person watched in silence with his two Pokémon over the strange event.

"… Why the heck am I stalking this guy again?"

His two Pokémon made an attempt to shrug before tensely taking a battle stance behind him.

"What?" He looked behind him. "What in Celebi's—"

After a good five minutes from _no one helping Anto_, the Great Ball finally dinged. At last that meant that Anto now owned a Pokémon out to kick his butt. Hooray!

"… _Waaaaiiiiitttt…_" Anto thought realizing that his quick thinking may have caused him long term problems.

"**Despite him not seeming very wise, he is still an amazing battler. He'll be quite the interesting teammate…**" Takezo mused with interest.

More rustling noises suddenly came out from one of the bushes. Anto cringed in fear while both Summer and Takezo prepared themselves for another violent Pokémon.

"There you are!"

Thankfully, it was Tracey along with his Pokémon had finally arrived when all the trouble was finally over.

Tracey turned to Anto, sighed at him then looked surprised at Summer.

"_OI!_"

Ignoring Anto's look of annoyance, Tracey started to talk to Summer. "You shouldn't be out here! You need to rest to heal those injuries!"

Summer's eyes widened as she remembered her real reason for running out in the first place. "You must be Tracey right? I'm sorry about running off, but my friends need my help!"

Tracey sighed. What was with people recently reminding him of his Journey with Ash and Misty? "Look, besides just running in a random direction to who knows where, do you even know how to find your friends?"

Summer's persona faltered a bit at that realization. She had technically caused more problems than she had meant to solve. Especially since both Anto and his Patrat had just helped her from being attacked by a random yet unique Sawk.

Tracey looked to his Venonat and Marill. "Could you guys sense the immediate area? Are there any other people nearby?"

Before his two Pokémon could comply, Takezo and Scyther tensed and took another fighting position towards another bush in a different direction.

"**Did you sense that?**" Takezo asked, gripping his wooden blades tighter than usual.

"**This one…**" Scyther agreed changing the stance of his arms. "**Feels dangerous…**"

Out of the bushes, came a familiar blue coated man with silver hair, sliding backwards with an Espeon and an Umbreon. They stared at the bush they came out as if something else was going to happen to it.

"Hey!" Tracey pointed to the boy. "You're Snagger Wes from Team Snaggem!"

"Team Snaggem?" Summer repeated automatically remembering that word being somewhat familiar.

But Anto seemed to pay more attention to the fact that it looked like he and his two Eons were fighting something, and the Fact that Scyther and Takezo still seemed to be focused at something beyond them.

Then he felt an aching pain in his head.

"Look," Wes started as he dusted himself off and stood back up properly. "As much as I would like to have this _fascinating conversation_, you might want to pay more attention to what gave that Pokémon ranger her injuries."

"What!?" Summer cried again?

"**Upon my wicked gaze doth fall the visage of many more mortal toys…**" The Pokémon that just spoke sounded like a female's voice, a demonic female's voice. For a minute, it sounded seductive… inviting… ripe…

Anto quickly shook his head—that was a freaking Pokémon for crying out loud! What the heck was that Pokémon?!

Everyone silently walked away as something revealed itself from the bush—o

Shing!

The entire bush and some trees all fell down in a quick session of slashes that happened in a blink of an eye.

The entire forest around revealed a powerful, ominous, and dangerous Pokémon filled with bloodlust within its eyes.

A black colored Mega Absol.

Whose eyes locked on to Anto.

* * *

**{Author notes.}**

**Hey guys. Happy Thanksgiving!**

**This chapther took a while to write because I was having some trouble thinking how to start it. As I re-read my old ideas, the story I originally planned didn't feel very... presentable. It does fit the story a bit, but I felt it took too weird a direction.**

**Unfortunately most of my writing has to be delayed. There are just too many things in my life and I can't do as much as I would like right now. **

**I'll try to squeeze whatever I can during vacation, but it might not be enough.**

**Anyway thank you for reading. This next tid bit is a deleted scene and what caused me to have problems with this chapter. It seemed like a waste to just delete it, so I kept it.**

* * *

**{Alternate begging scene}**

"**Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched?**"

"_Err… I think my life's too boring for anyone to pay attention to._"

"**Since when is being a mute amnesiac with the power to empathetically communicate with a completely different species that also attracts potentially life threatening situations in order to restore lost memories considered 'Normal'?"**

"_Point taken. But tell me again how you and I got tied up to a tree in the middle of nowhere, at the dead of night, and about to be burned to the stake by a bunch of psychotic kindergartners?_"

Anto seriously wondered what he had done in his previous or earlier life that caused such a true event to happen.

Yes, there were a bunch of crazed- half naked kindergartners attempting to do some poorly coordinated dancing ritual before attempting to burn Anto and Takezo who were tied up to a tree in the middle of nowhere.

No, this actually wasn't some kind of midnight summer's dream.

Much to the amnesiac's dismay; he actually wasn't remembering any form of his memory from this event.

"**Do you not remember, or did you choose to forget? If the latter, your ability to forget traumatic and unwanted memories is something to be jealous of.**"

"_Traumatic for you and Tracey, curse him by the way, but to me, this just feels like some kind of acid trip induced dream! I mean just earlier today the three of us were just waking up at the put skirts of Route 3…_"

[Earlier that day…]

Anto, Tracey and Takezo were making their way through Route 3. Tracey had just finished the story about how Ash won the Mikan Gym. During the first part, Anto could help but laugh at the fact the gym leader's brother had put a trap and that Ash unknowingly took the bait.

Tracey continued telling more stories about Ash to Anto, but then they heard several loud screaming noises as they reached the end of the pavement road.

Anto, Tracey, and Takezo saw that the loud sounds were coming from a kindergarten, or specifically, the entrance of a kindergarten.

Sitting in front of the large stone gateways that covered the building was a disheveled lady with short brown hair tied in a bun, wearing a blue blouse with a white pencil skirt. Her face was buried in her hands as she sat down on the steps to the entrance.

"Miss, are you alright?" Tracey called out.

The woman looked up and stared at the two boys like they were alien invaders. The sheer intensity of the stare made even Takezo's eyes look boring in comparison.

The woman stood up so fast that it looked like she didn't even move. She just went from one sitting down to standing up in a millisecond.

"Please help me!" She half screamed as she grabbed Tracey's collar with her vice like death grip.

Now Tracey was a kind and caring soul, he learned from experiences prior that he helping people at your own expense was always rewarding, but right now his instincts were screaming at him to run away.

"Umm…" Tracey nervously stuttered out. He did want to help her, but the way she started to grind her own teeth made him very uncomfortable.

In need of assistance, he looked to Anto and Takezo for help, but he saw the said two slowly back tracking away from the older boy.

Tracey felt slightly betrayed by their actions. However, refusing to get trapped alone in this situation, Tracey formed a devious idea. While his inner kind nature was telling him not to do what he was planning, he was not about to suffer through this alone.

"Actually, I can't help you, but my _dear friend_ Anto can." Tracey told the woman as he eased her hands to let go of him.

Now two things happened quickly as soon as Tracey had said this.

One was the woman suddenly locking eyes with Anto like a bloodhound.

The second thing was Anto realizing what Tracey had just said. "_You jerk! I literally can't say no!_"

Suddenly, the woman latched onto Anto's feet and started sobbing manically. "Please! You NEED to help me! I can't stand those children! I was just a substitute caretaker!" She wailed before burying her face into Anto's shoes and started blowing her nose into them.

"_What?! Sunnuva—I'm not a human tissue, for crying out loud!_"

Takezo sighed and slowly walked away. "**I shall be searching for chesto berries.**"

*Bang!*

Everyone was surprised to hear a sudden sound, and they turned to look over where it came from.

On the ground in front of them, there was a dented bucket that was spilling out sand on the road in front of them.

**{End of begging scene.}**


	7. Ep 7: You've Got A Frienemy In Me

**{Author's note}**

**Sup. My first post of the new year and it's this story out of all the other stories I'm working on. **

**Whoo.**

… **OK, as some of you may notice, I changed the title and summary. Thought this one will help catch more readers and maybe allow me to shift the tone of this story.  
**

**I'll explains some more stuff at the bottom of the chapter but oh well.**

**To the story and the continuation! Go mighty quote!?  
**

_You know, even for anime, Yugioh has some wacked up hair styles._

_-A comment._

* * *

Episode 7: Reboots galore! (Not a Michael Bay one.)

Long ago under the unbearable heat of the rough sand dessert, a small kid was violently brought in front of a large, muscular man who was the leader of a growing and prosperous gang.

The towering man, even though he was sitting down, loomed over the kid in rags. Still he couldn't help but be impressed by the look in the kid's eyes as he stared him down. The kid was glaring daggers at him, he didn't seem afraid in the slightest despite literally being surrounded by thugs on all sides.

The leader was rather impressed at the daggers his amber eyes were showing him. "Hey, Kid, I like your eyes."

"Your mustache is stupid." Unfazed the kid retorted coldly.

"… HAHAHA! Oh I'm liking you more each second kid! One thing to try and steal from one of the toughest man in the city, now you're insulting my fashion sense? What's your name kid?"

"W—… Wes… just Wes."

"Well then Just Wes, my name is Gonzap,' The Young and bulky man leaned toward the boy making his face meet with the same fierce glare of the child. "How would you like to join my crew?"

[Back in the Present…]

Gonzap rubbed his chin.

Then he had to admit he was impressed. These seemed like nothing those people in Cipher could pull off, legally to boot!

A large Hyperion Class Stealth Carrier MK#3, a supposed prototype design that was bigger, faster, and twice as efficient as the rumored Hunter J's mobile aerial base.

There was literally no spending of Team Snaggem's resources for this beauty nor did they steal it.

It was given to them.

Yes, even Gonzap knew that was way too shady.

Especially the conditions behind the gift were as followed:

Was to lead a small but elite group of his best men in an expansion attempt in the Unova region

And the second one was all too suspicious.

Terminate their current partnership with Cipher.

Gonzap was a brave and proud man, and he would never back down from any form of intimidation. However, when he read this second condition for the first time, he was caught off guard. The people who had openly made this deal with Team Snagem shouldn't have had any clue they were in a secret partnership with Cipher.

He even remembered how they had come across this deal in the first place: one year back there was news of a CEO of a rising company traveling around their area of Orre. Some fancy man in a suit thought that Orre would be a great place for a vacation due to the lack of people and potential publicity.

That was true, but he also happened to be traveling via dune buggy near their turf during his supposed vacation in Orre.

Unfortunately for him, Gonzap was leading this specific raid and his team easily ambushed the frightened, pale, skinny, and forty year old with only his best, slightly plum friend as his only companion.

They laughed at him, jeered at the CEO even as he begged them all, on his knees with his face down on the hot scorching sand, to spare him in his friend in return for even giving them all 'free donations' to their organization. Even going as far to allowing him to 'give' them a down payment to prove he would keep his word.

Gonzap recalled his sarcastic and powerful answer to the man and thanked him for his kind 'donations' as he so eloquently put and let him, and his friend off back into whatever civilization he crawled out from.

He and his men laughed as the two men stumbled from the ground, onto their dune buggy, and sped off away like a scared off Ratata.

As Gonzap remembered this event, his memory seemed to point out something he dismissed back then.

As the two men were leaving his sight, he thought he saw the two men… smiling… as they left.

Something about those distant smiles seemed… inhuman…

That one image of both far off men smiling shattered the entire tone of the rest of his memory and the one important question came up.

Did those blasted men orchestrate that entire scenario just to get a deal with them?

"What the hell did I get myself into?" Gonazap muttered as he rubbed his temples.

He filled out the first condition since it was easy enough, albeit confusing.

But as for the second one… the suspiciousness of this deal only grew worse when the benefactor of this deal stated via letter of all things that they could take as much time with the second option as they want.

It was like these guys were giving them everything they ever wanted and more: that was something _far_ too good to be true.

Gonzap had this incredible feeling like these company men were fattening them up like Mamoswines to be slaughtered in the meat house.

He looked over to the dessert in the distance, wondering how the group he sent was faring out in a new place.

[Elsewhere…]

If you would ever tell him that he would stalk a boy around his age that also punched him in the face and destroyed his favorite bike, Wes would just glare at you and silently push you towards meeting with a terrible fate for such a stupid joke.

Then he would actually remember you existed one point in time when he actually found himself doing that same, eerily accurate depiction you told him. If you were still alive at this point, then he'd probably just write it off as a very strange coincidence. If you were killed because you were too much of a wuss to handle Wes' payback then he'd probably just say 'you were right' then move on his life never recalling the fact again unless he needed to.

Wes was a very straight forward, no nonsense, and tough guy, but he had the tactical prowess and battle talent that could give the best trainers of the world a run for their money. Still, he was having a lot of trouble dealing with the situation right in front of him.

He had just revealed himself to a boy he was trying to hide from. A boy who had somehow gained his curiosity when said boy refused to hand him over to the police, traveled with a rather competent trainer with a Scyther, both of who have recently found and patched up an injured Pokémon Ranger, and was now the current target of a vicious Pokémon that vaguely resembled an Absol, but only stronger and twisted somehow.

Life was so much simpler for the thief back in Orre. The most trouble they ever had was when some idiot newbie destroyed their air conditioner since stealing other people's Pokémon was fairly easy back in Orre.

Wes decided to stop thinking about his life style and focus more on getting out of the way of a bullet-like Absol with wings. Absols were dark types unfortunately, so Espeon was near useless in this situation. Not to mention there was just something… different about this Absol.

The Absol was completely black where it should have been white and white where it should have been black. He thought it originally to be a shiny Pokémon, but Absol shiny Pokémon are nothing like that color scheme.

Wes tensed when he saw the creature smile. It was smiling wider than he thought its cheeks could even go. It suddenly jumped off and pounced right for the boy he knew as Anto.

It moved quickly, but so did Anto's Patrat. The little blademaster intercepted the pounce by attempting to slam one of his blades at the attacking Pokémon's face at the left side. The attack connected and Anto was able to swerve to his left and avoid the pouncing Absol's claw from stabbing his eyes out.

That scared everyone, this Absol seemed to be out for blood—their blood.

But while the attack connected, it only seemed to make the stronger Pokémon flinch, not purely injure it. The split second Anto got out of the way of the fatal attack; the Absol's gaze forced itself to glare right back at Takezo's defiant, unreadable battle façade.

Takezo moved quickly, kicking himself off the dark type after connecting the attack and allowing him to stand in between the Absol and his new partner.

"_Whoa snap!_" Anto thought out as he crawled slightly away from the attacking Pokémon. "_What the heck was that about!?_"

"**How dare you attack my friend! What has prompted this assault!?**" Takezo demanded with his blades pointed toward the odd winged Absol.

The Absol slowly showed an unreadable smirk before speaking in what Anto recognized to be a female's voice, "**A simple test, blade acolyte… nothing more or less…**"

The scary thing that the voice of the Absol sounded... seductive and ripe… which made Anto quickly shake his head in disbelief and forcefully recall that the thing in front of him was a Pokémon and that bestiality was thought as one of the worst taboos to cross one's mind or lips.

"**Blade… acolyte… ?**" Takezo was confused at the odd title he was given, but that small confusion allowed the Absol to pounce again at them with even greater speed, and catching the little Pokémon off guard.

In a flash of black and the force of nothing less than a locomotive, the Absol slammed into Takezo before he could even pull off a Detect, and slammed him through two trees before being halted by the next one. The loud slam that small Pokémon made on impact echoed through the area and shocked all the others at the display of power it just flaunted.

"_Takezo!_" Anto yelled in his head. Worried for his friend, he tried to get back up and run into the large dust cloud to find his friend.

Emphasis on tried.

Anto wailed in silent pain when he felt something heavy pin him to the ground. When he looked back up, the Absol was literally right on top of him.

"**To think I would chance upon the Seed here of all places… and those humans guarded you so proudly. What little ploy is this?**"

Anto wondered what she meant by that. One particular word stood out to him. "_Se-seed?_"

"Anto! Scyther, Marill get that Pokémon off him!" Tracey finally cried out after watching the events play out.

The Absol only scoffed as the water and bug type came its way. Anto saw one of its paws gathering a lot of dark energy.

Wes saw the gathering dark energy and recognized it as a specific priority attack. "Hey—!"

But Tracey already commanded his Pokémon to attack, Scyther with Slash, Marill tried to launched a Water Gun.

"**Sucker Punch! Sucker Punch!**" The Absol cried out in gleeful joy as she smacked Marill away in blinding speed as well as knocking away Scyther almost simultaneously.

"Scyther! Marill!" Tracey cried out while Venonat yelped in concern for her friends.

Marill was instantly knocked out from the powerful attack, but Scyther seemed to still stay conscious and slowly tried to get itself up.

"**Oh? My respect to thee oh elder one. However, thy immortal warrior soul demands me to release thee from thy mortal shackles…**" The Absol purred maliciously before jumping into the air and aiming right for the fallen Scyther.

"Scyther!" Tracey called out worryingly.

"Espeon, Reflect! Umbreon, Secret Power!"

Suddenly the Absol landed on a psychic shield several feet above the felled Scyther. Then it heard an odd sound coming it' way, and it quickly turned around to see something like a Vine Whip heading straight for it. The winged dark type jumped off the shield and landed a good distance away.

It stared at the two Eon twins now standing defiantly in front of the injured Scyther in an attempt to protect him.

Tracey was surprised and quickly turned to the one he had recently fought only several days ago. "W-why did you…?" He asked at a loss for words but grateful for the save of his partner.

"Look, I'm only helping you to owe the mute kid," Wes grunted as he pointed to Anto then quickly back to the Absol. "But if that Absol is actually going to kill us then I rather work with you guys than have it pick us all off one by one! First thing first though: headband kid, calm down the Ranger, I think she's having a panic attack!" Wes motioned his thumb to the girl behind him who seemed to be hyperventilating as she stared into the Absol's eyes.

The Absol seemed interested as she changed her view of the blue coated human towards the gasping girl behind the two boys. Another twisted smile curled up her face as she saw a familiar face. "**I doth swore I sent her sailing across the skies. From such a blow, I expected her spine to shatter as she descended back onto the earth. Shame on me for holding back my balde…"**

"N-no!" Summer fell to her knees as the Pokémon stared back at her. She clamped her hands over her head and fell into the ground.

"_Summer!_" Anto cried as he got back up. Tracey had already ran to Summer and tried to calm her down. Anto was going to do the same until Wes stood in front of him, barring his pat to help comfort the girl.

Wes saw the look of confusion in Anto's face but he raised his hand out and pointed back to the Absol. "Look, I don't know what exactly your game is. But that Absol still seems out for your blood. My Espeon and Umbreon are at a type disadvantage and you just so happen to have a fighting type."

Anto's eyes widened as he remembered said fighting type that he had recently caught or did his absolute best to make sure it wouldn't kick his butt.

Anto crossed his arms below his neck to make an x formation. "_No! Not that guy!_"

Wes grunted and pointed back to Espeon trying to force the Absol back with Reflect while Umbreon was swat away by what looked to be a different dark type attack. "OK, fine think of it this way. Send that thing that kicked your butt to fight that thing trying to kill you, and maybe if you're lucky, both of them will take each other out. And I suggest doing it now before the thing _trying to kill you_ takes out the only two lines of defense we have left!"

"Hey that's not true!" Trace called out, which made both Anto and Wes raise a brow at him. The head band wearing boy looked at his Venonat and pointed to the Absol. "Venonat, use Sleeping Powder!"

The small creature chirped happily before racing past both Espeon then Umbreon. Then it launched a dust of green powder towards the Absol.

However, the Absol only smiled as the powder started to descend on her. Her white head blade started to glow and suddenly all of the Powder was bounced backed to Venonat, Umbreon, and Espeon! All three Pokémon's eyes got heavy and they all fell into unconsciousness.

"… Was that Magic Bounce?" Tracey commented out loud in disbelief. He remembered Professor Oak telling him that Pokémon with the Magic Bounce ability could repel any non-damaging attack back at its opponents.

"Oh hey, you're right: now we don't have anything stopping the Absol from mauling us. _Way to go, Head Band_." Wes remarked with apathetic sarcasm.

"Shouldn't your two Eons have activated their Synchronize by now?!" Tracey shouted back. He seemed a little peeved at how Wes was treating him rather than focusing on the Absol slowly heading their way with a sadistic smile on its face.

No sooner that he said this, Espeon's forehead gem started gleaming, while Umbreon's tattoos lit up in a bright glow. Obviously their Synchronize ability must have activated because the Absol suddenly dropped to the floor.

Wes capitalized on this moment and shouted back at everyone. "Quick! While it's down, get all of your Pokémon back and run away from that thing!" Then, both he and Tracey took out their Pokéballs and recalled all of their incapacitated Pokémon. However, Anto struggled with his Pokéball (even though he finally was able to capture Takezo) mostly because he still didn't see his friend. He had to pass over the sleeping Absol in order to go to the area where his partner was launched.

Anto gritted his teeth and ran as fast as he could. While he did his best to go around the sleeping dragon, his vibrations made the Absol's eyes snap back open and revive that twisted smile.

"_Oh Crap!_"

"Anto!" Tracey called out again as both he and Wes saw the Absol getting back up.

The Absol quickly got back up and focused its sights on Anto with feral lust. Anto had no choice but to continue running toward where Takezo was launched.

"**The appointed time is nigh! The cosmos shall quake once more!**" The Absol madly wailed before being stopped again—this time by a spinning top.

Both Wes and Tracey looked back to see Summer back up and pointing her Capture Styler towards the Pokémon.

"Y-you! What have you done to Jack and Keith!?" Summer demanded somewhat hesitantly. Wes noticed it right away he seemed to notice her hands were slightly trembling, not from her injuries but as if she was… afraid of the Pokémon in front of them.

To everyone's surprise, the Absol… laughed. It laughed cruelly at the skies.

"**Mayhap I hit thou head, human?**" Anto noticed that it seemed to have a mocking tone as it glanced toward Summer. "**Even this mortal mind knowth of the function of these… Capture Stylers… that your knights do so proudly arm themselves with. It requires an empathetic heart, and connecting thou's emotions with mine.** **Thou art trembling with fear and I doth belive that thou does not want to… **_**connect thou feelings with mine…**_**"**

Anto wondered what exactly was the point of all that since no one besides him could understand Pokémon, but he saw that Summer seemed very hesitant in actually trying the capture process. She just seemed so terrified with the Absol in front of her. Then Anto remembered something Wes had previously mentioned about this Absol being the thing that injured her. Was she afraid of this specific Pokémon?

"Hey that thing you do to calm down Pokémon, why aren't you doing it yet?!" Wes screamed, slightly startling Summer. "Don't tell me you're afraid!?"

Summer tried to respond, but her voice didn't come out quite as confident as everyone wanted to hear. "N-no! I'm not afraid! I-I been through worse than this!"

Tracey seemed rather angry at the way Wes seemed to be treating people. "Hey! Stop that! In fact, what's your stake in this? Did you and your Team Snagem thugs plan all of this!?"

"_Sure, because the plan totally involves me risking my behind to help you people!_" Wes screamed back sarcastically and with rising anger.

The three seemed to be focus on each other and momentarily forgot about Absol and Anto.

"**Oh how quickly you humans turn on another,**" The Absol quietly chuckled. Anto quickly dug his hand back into his pockets before she turned back to him, slowly getting out of the way of the Capture Disc. "**No matter, I shall take the Seed from thy mutilated remains of thy skull.**"

Anto focus his thoughts towards the Absol, "_Stop! Why are you doing this!? What the heck do you keep mentioning this seed thing?!_"

The Absol titled her head. "**… I see… no, I shall not speak a word to its host.**"

"_Host?_" Anto repeated before noticing the Absol moving again towards him with everyone else seemingly too focused on each other. "_Screw it! Go, Sawk!_"

Anto threw the Great Ball and out came the one armed fighting Pokémon.

"**So this is what it's like to be a trainer's Pokémon. I was 'xpecting… I dunno… it ain't as diff as I thought it'd be,**" The Sawk looked at Anto. "**So, Boss, what yu want?**"

"_Help me fight her!_" Anto pointed to the winged Absol.

Sawk, looked over to his opponent and smiled wide. Took a fighting stance with his right arm clenched tightly in to a fist. "**Yo! This guy looks tough!**"

"_I just told you she's a girl_!"

"**Whatever, boy or girl, I beat them all up!**" Sawk hyped himself up.

"_Glad to see you're all about equal beatdowns for all genders at least…_" He sarcastically remarked.

The black, white-accented Pokémon laughed mockingly as she faced her newest opponent, it was like they had become so desperate as to let a handicapped Pokémon face her.

"**Look at you? A cripple? You jest! This will not even be a proper duel nor those sad attempt at fighting the other did…**"She jeered cruelly.

"**I didn't understand like half the words you be spittin',**" Sawk's expression turned solemn and his body became way more tense. "**But what I do knows is that ya insulted my arm didn't ya?**"

"**Thou has no limb you speakth of!**"

"… **I know I don't got an arm… but I ain't letting that define me! I'll show you all! I'll beat the strongest of ya all! … Then no one be spittin those insults no more…**" Sawk spoke softly as he pointed at Absol… before taunting her to give her the first move.

Anto felt his head hurt as he heard those words come from Sawk. For some reason, he almost felt like crying as he saw another flash of images he couldn't make out. It was like he was empathizing with how the Sawk was ridiculed because he had one arm. This pain distracted him from giving him any time to command his new Sawk against the strange Dark Type.

"**Such a gentleman, allowing me the first…**" Absol started charging what now looked to be psychic energy around her head. "**… and last hit! Zen Headbutt!**"

A large burst of psychic energy dispersed around the area after making contact with the Fighting Pokémon, forcing every human to snap out of their stupor and look towards the impact and shield themselves from the large dust cloud heading their way.

"… **That the best ya got?**"

The winged Absol was surprised that her target didn't seem to budge from the attack she unleashed on him, she was sure she put all of her killing intent in that attack! She looked up to see the Sawk, though damaged, still standing.

The Sawk pulled his right hand back, glowing with blue energy. "**You are just like the rest of em! All bark!**" He threw his right arm directly into her face. "**REVERSAL!**"

The large impact of the blow blew away the cloud dust again and rocketed the Absol far away to smash into what looked to be a dozen trees before exploding on impact at the far edge of the clearing all the humans looked at shock as they Anto's Sawk still standing despite looking terrible from the attack.

"… **And no bite…**" Sawk finished before slumping to the gorund, only to be caught by Anto, smiling widely at him.

"_You sure showed her… Ohko._" Anto said proudly. Anto really felt a connection with this Pokémon, especially after hearing him admit that he was called names. He didn't know why, but he felt… he understood completely what it was like to be ridiculed because he was different, and he wanted to be sure that this Pokémon would never feel that way again, even if he didn't understand completely why he was doing this.

"**Ohko?**" Sawk, now Ohko repeated.

"_Your new name, Ohko, short for One Hit Knock Out. You're going to be so strong, just one hit and all your opponents will fall. How does that sound?_"

The one armed Sawk smiled as he said these next three words with amusement… and respect. "**Not bad… Boss.**"

Then Ohko looked over to the damage his attack caused and sighed. "**I still got ways to go… I get a cool name and I can't live up to it. Shoot.**"

Anto wondered what he meant by that before looking where the Absol was launched—only to see the strange Absol slowly get back up, heavily injured from the attack, but still moving and looking absolutely livid.

"**HOW DAREST THEE!**" It roared. "**I SHALL TEAR OFF THY OTHER ARM FOR THIS HERESY!**" It took a step forward—made everyone else flinch—then it dropped to the ground, muscles aching far too much.

"**I… will not forget this… humiliation…**" The Absol stood back up. She glared one of the scariest and maddening glares to Ohko. Ohko's response to it was to casually spit on the ground. "**Thy skull wilt be mine to decapitate over thy mutilated corpse!" **She cursed before jumping into the woods and disappearing.

Anto sighed in relief.

"**Ow. Still in pain, don't yu's got them fancy healin stuff them other people like to spam on their crew?**" Ohko asked as he looked to Anto.

Anto raised his brow. Was he talking about potions? … That was a very interesting description of them. "_You mean potions? … You know it might be a good idea to stock up on those._"

Before he could say anymore, he heard someone walking over to him.

"See? You should have let that guy out in the first place before that Absol beat up the rest of our Pokémon." Anto saw that it was Wes, arms folded and looking not amuse.

Anto briefly checked himself and found out that while bent, his note book was still in an OK state. He wanted to write something, but then Tracey's voice shot out.

"Hey! Stop antagonizing my friends!" He yelled angrily. Summer was right behind him, a little downcast for some reason.

Tracey went on in his angry rant pointed towards the blue clad boy. "What are you even doing here in the first place?! Are you out for revenge against Anto!?"

"Anto huh?" Wes, seeming to ignore Tracey's claims, repeated Anto's name with curiosity before turning to the mute. "Even for here sounds foreign, where are you from? Oh right mute. Never mind." He said realizing the fault of his words.

Frustrated, Tracey clenched his fists. "Are you even listening to me, Snagger!?" Tracey yelled angrily.

Wes entered a stare down with Tracey before speaking plainly. "Look, I only followed him because I was curious. Your friend here had the chance to turn me over to the police, but didn't when you first found him the night after the battle."

Tracey's eyes widened at that fact. He turned to Anto with a shocked expression. "Anto, you what!?"

Anto sighed before nodding his head then writing something down.

"W-why did you do that?!" Tracey was able to get out before Anto took out his necklace and placed it out in front of them.

"It's a bit selfish, I know. But I think he knows something about my past." Was written on the note pad.

Everyone seemed confused at what was written on the amnesiac's note pad. Wes, in particular, was surprised about the reason why he was spared in the first place.

"Your past?" Wes repeated out loud, genuinely confused.

Anto scribbled quickly. "You said you recognized this necklace." Motioning to the pendant now his open palm.

"Oh, I recognize that necklace!"

Everyone was rather surprised that it was Summer, not Wes who had just admitted that.

"Y-you do?" Tracey asked in mild shock.

"It's not the necklace, but rather the pattern, symbol, and color scheme of that pendant," Wes spoke out in an explanation.

Summer nodded her head in agreement and took off from where he ended. "Yeah, but that symbol belongs to a moderately high trade business called Dimension Enterprises, they're a company that helps in providing postal services airplanes, boats, and other vehicles. They also help out with the making of high level computer chips that are so high quality that you can find any of their software on 90 percent of the satellites currently in orbit. The Ranger Union has always received new shipment and funding in their software department from Dimension Enterprises."

"That's their public side. But it looks like they have hand in the black market as well," Wes added along casually, causing Summer to also show a surprised look in her face. "Team Snagem has been in a partnership with Dimension Enterprise for a good year now and we've been given a lot high quality gear and machinery to help or group. But despite what even seems to be them being even indirectly involved with other shady organizations. Most of their contracts seem to be oriented in just gaining money, so they're not evil, but they are pretty greedy."

Summer seemed a bit stunned at something Wes said and started processing something. "Wait! You really are part of Team Snagem!? They are the most wanted group of thugs in the Orre region! Heck, it's believed they have the highest crime rate besides Team Rocket!"

Trace seemed a little annoyed that Summer realized this a little late even though she seemed a little distracted before, but he was glad they were finally confronting this Pokémon thief!

Wes rolled his eyes. "Well to be fair, there barely is any government police force in Orre, so it's easy to get away with things." He nonchalantly said.

"You are under arrest!" Summer screamed as she pointed her Capture Styler towards Wes.

"Oh, Celebi, this is giving me such a head ache…" Wes complained as he motioned his hand to the bridge of his nose. "I guess this was a pretty stupid idea in the first place…"

However, before Tracey and Summer could make another move, everyone was surprised to see Anto's Sawk move in front Tracy and Summer while seemingly trying to defend Wes despite looking heavily injured.

"Huh?!" Both Tracey and Summer cried out before they, including Wes, looked over to Anto with a very intimidating glare, not a scary as the Absol that had attacked them, but something that was more like a disappointed father staring down his disobedient children.

They saw Anto had written something new and slightly long. "STOP. First of all, yes Wes is a criminal, but you forget that it's thanks to him, we're all alive right now. It was him who faced the Absol first from just pouncing at us in surprise, and it was him who reminded me that I had Ohko here to counter that Absol. Tracey, I'm sorry for letting him go the first time that was very selfish of me, but I truly don't believe him to be a bad person… even when he tackled me from the sky…"

"You smacked me in the face with a Cacnea, you mime!" Wes shouted back after reading that latest part, making Summer and Tracey raise brows at what happened between the two.

"Fine we're even. But don't you two find how weird it is for a supposed criminal willing going away from his team and helping us?"

Wes sighed in relief. "Finally, someone is talking some sense… oh wait, you're writing that… well this is weird."

Anto nodded at that. This happened why too much for his own good.

"What do you mean by that?" Summer asked as she turned to Wes.

The Snagger glanced away from them, a little hesitant to speak, but looked like he was about to explain what he meant. "I recently quit Team Snagem. Right now I'm just Wes, a normal trainer I guess." He shrugged off, trying his best to avoid this subject.

"You quit!?" Tracey cried out surprised again before anger reappeared in his face. "You didn't look like it when you attacked Black and White!"

Wes continued to talk. "I wasn't trying to hurt them. It's just that they were way too close to our current base of operations. I was actually trying to leave them then, but when I got crossed with those two and those odd robed people… well the rest is history…"

"If you were trying to leave them, then why did you alert them about the police!?" Tracey angrily pointed out.

"I said I wanted to leave. I didn't say that I hated them. I still had some people I could tolerate back there and I didn't want them to go to jail." Wes explained.

Tracey seemed a little baffled at that before a loud tapping sound caught everyone's attention again. Anto was holding out a new message.

"You didn't hate them, but you wanted to leave? Why?"

After that question, Wes' tension dropped. His voice, no longer showing strong or defiant confidence, held some kind of… shame, "It's complicated: let's just say things were different before than now."

After a small period of awkward silence, Tracey spoke out with some hesitation, "I still don't trust you… but you did help us… so… thanks…"

Wes could only nod at that, for him it was something at least, before turning to the Ranger. "What about you? Are you still going to try to arrest me?"

Summer pondered for another few moments. She stared determined at Wes before saying her answer.

"… Yes," Summer stated but placed her capture styler down. "But not now. You still helped us when this was all my fault—Keith, Jack! I forgot completely about them!" Summer screamed as she remembered the reason she ran off in the first place, but as soon as she jerked towards where the Absol left, she felt a large amount of pain.

"Whoa, Summer! The pain killers must have died by now, don't push yourself!" Tracey cried and caught her. Anto also came up to her.

"But my friends! They were left alone by that… thing!" She cried out, almost desperately.

Tracey was about to say something until Anto brought a note for him to read. Tracey quickly read it's contents and read aloud the note. "Anto says: Summer, don't do it. I think your friends are fine. The Absol only seemed interested in attacking me while it let you live. And the way were are right now, we have near no way of defending ourselves from that thing."

Summer tried to struggle, but Anto held her back while trying his best not to hurt her. "B-but how are we supposed to find it!?"

"There's actually more written here—what?! Anto!" Tracey cried to the boy but Anto motioned him to read. Tracey just stared at the solemn look on the boy's face before sighing. "Anto says… You don't need to go looking for it. It will come after me and Ohko after what we tried to do to it. If you stay with us, you'll get your chance to help them again… but right now we have to leave."

Tracey felt bitter in reading the part on how Anto was willingly offering himself as bait, but he had to admit the only conscious Pokémon they had left was Anto's baldy injured Sawk. If that thing came back, they would have no way of defending themselves.

Summer also refused to put someone else at risk for her mistake. "N-no! I'm not letting you do that!"

"Unfortunately with those injuries, you don't exactly have a choice. Some of your bandages are even bleeding; I think you reopened some of your wounds when you first ran away from the tent." Wes stated coldly but truly.

Summer slumped in defeat. She couldn't just accept this, but if she tried any more she would be in too much pain. She allowed Tracey to help her up and they all, even Wes, started to make their way back to the tent where Tracey had left their medical supplies.

"**Dang, boss, I'm aching all over…**" Ohko announced to his new master as he walked. Anto wanted to bringing him back in his Great Ball, but decided to let him finish talking. "**But I can't wait to get better and have another go at that ****Patrat with a sword****!**"

Anto suddenly froze.

…

Everyone all seemed to look back at why Anto had suddenly seemed to freeze mid step and was now losing color in his face.

Anto moved again, clamping his hands on his head in maniacal panic. "_I FORGOT ABOUT TAKEZO!_"

Takezo later did not appreciate being left in pain after he woke up.

**{Author's note}**

**Quite the odd group coming together huh? Well… somewhat together at least. They kind of have issues with each other.**

**I hope that the characters are still in character. With Tracey, he's just as passionate about good treatment towards Pokémon as Ash would be, so of course he would not get along with Wes who was a Pokémon Snagger, former or not.**

**Since Wes doesn't exactly have a character being the usual mute protagonist, I decided to reflect his character as one of those people who at first did what they thought was right, but slowly start to realize they were actually wrong. Actually, for this story, he doesn't regret stealing (yet) because Orre would be something like the Pokémon world equal to a third world country on Earth. My imagining of Orre would be way more brutal and slummy where the strongest survive except in Agate village, Phenac City, and Mt. Battle.**

**As for Summer, I based her loosely on her game counterpart as the NPC. While she has been captured before (in the game) and she has been in worse situations. This was one of the first times that she was physically injured by a Pokémon attacking her directly and not the capture disc. Not to mention the Mega Absol's weird character and sadistic nature would probably scare her since she never saw a Pokémon show such cruelty. Which was why instead of the up-beat and supportive person as her NPC would show, she's a little traumatized from being attacked by some strange new monster.**

**Speaking of the Mega Absol, which I hope you guys got, I never referred it as one because no one in that group knew what mega evolution was. (At least not yet.) And as one would know about mega evolution in the games or anime or manga…**

"**It requires a Key stone, Mega Stone, and a trainer it trusts." Or something along those lines anyway. Basically three things, but you didn't see any? (At least now.) If these three things were still needed, then who was her trainer? And what do they want with the Rangers?**

**Now for the new character Ohko, a handicapped Pokémon. I always thought that if there were Pokémon that could be traumatized via egg. (I'm referencing that Larvitar that traveled with Ash a while back.) then maybe it's possible for a defect to appear on Pokémon as well. Like how some unfortunate people are born with handicap. For Ohko, I plan something a little different with most Pokémon. (Along with all of Anto's future Pokémon since they'll all have some odd quirk.) but I'll get more into that later.**

**As of right now, the group is large, but they're all on edge at each other. Next chapter, see how Anto bonds with all three of his human companions and tries to bring them all closer together…**

**And maybe solve a case of a certain missing skeleton? (props if you get this reference.) **

**Thanks for reading.**


	8. Ep 8: Do I Trust You?

**Ep. 8: What Has Existed And What Is Born.**

[Deep within the Johto Region…]

A powerful, brown haired man wearing some kind of green uniform folded his arms strictly as he stared down the newly discovered tabernacle.

The design was faded, but the structure was still good enough to preserve what looked to be ancient. Recent reports in Radiocarbon Dating, or a scientific method in measuring ages in rocks, showed that the rubble around the crude looking tabernacle to date back to the pre-historic area over one billion years ago!

However, the man who had discovered this priceless artifact was not happy nor did he show any form of emotion to reflect on his success. Rather, he seemed to be focused on the unrecognized, and terribly faded ancient writings in the front of the tabernacle from where he found it deep within these unknown and hidden ruins.

He had dabbled in studies of linguistics, archeology, and had recognized some of the faded symbols recorded and decoded by Johto historians before him. However, with what little he could piece together, there was some kind of poem written on the tabernacle, a poem that is now half complete.

It was the few words that he could loosely translate that caught his attention.

_Unova…_

_The dragons fight…_

_Usher…_

_Rebirth…_

_Beware…_

_Ringed One…_

_Rings…_

_Opening…_

_Finding…_

_Seed…_

He heard the sound of foot steps behind him and turned to see his assistant coming up to him.

"Brandon! Regirock has finished clearing the rubble and I think he's found a new hallway!"

The man named Brandon nodded. "Thank you Samuel, I will be there shortly…"

Samuel nodded and made his way out. Brandon then focused his sight on the odd drawing of three rings that were made to look like eyes around the word "Ringed One."

[Meanwhile…]

Summer sighed as she looked up to the stars. Right now she was currently wearing a cute Plusle and Minun Pajama that the Pokémon center was kind enough to let her borrow while she was on the roof top of said Pokémon Center. It wasn't really hard for her to do this since she had just climbed up from an open balcony in her room and up there. Her injuries became a lot better now that she received proper treatment from the Pokémon Center here in Nacerne City.

The entrance to this city was … really awkward since no one in the group spoke a single word after they had survived the encounter with the odd winged Absol. (No one expected Anto to speak of course—wow having a mute in this group really makes things awkward when something about talking is mentioned, and it happens way more often than one thinks!) It didn't help when the four of them walked into the city, they sort of stuck out in the crowd because of how roughed up they all were from the attack.

Tracey seemed especially distant with Anto for some reason, while the mute just looked so confused. For Wes, she didn't know why he bothered coming with them, but figured he probably had nothing better to do. Worst of all, Summer was really feeling bad about the whole ordeal both emotionally and physically.

Being too injured to go try and save the people who helped you…

Being forced to run away and abandon your friend…

It was so frustrating! But what exactly could she have done? She still was injured and had forced the people to take care of her in jeopardy. Anto and Tracey had both of their Pokémon exhausted while Wes' were incapacitated.

Wes…

Summer couldn't help but scowl as she thought back to the self proclaimed, former member of Team Snaggem.

The Ranger Union had files on Team Snaggem for quite some time. However, as much as they wanted to send a team of Rangers over to the Orre Region, they had some legal issues in getting there. It turns out that The Union had asked the mayor of Phenac City, Evice if they could set up a post in his city, but Evice for some reason believed that it wasn't necessary and was adamant that the Ranger Union had no need to step up a post in their town. Relations with the plump mayor have always caused issues for The Union to make a move in helping people in that region.

But after finally meeting one of them, Summer couldn't help but despise him. He reeked of how the Pokémon Pinchers were back in the Oblivia region, a bunch of thugs that forced Pokémon to do their bidding and caused them nothing but grief and pain just for their own selfish desires. Sure later on she and Ben were able to see the good in some if not most of the commanders of the Pokémon Pinchers, but Wes seemed too distant, rude, and uncaring for his first impression.

He looked pretty stupid too! Who wears some kind of robotic brace over his left arm? Or who wears a long blue overcoat that flutters in the wind whenever he walks? And what was the deal with those silver shades he wore at the top of his head? Those look really stupid! And he has some stupid colored eyes as well!

What Summer didn't realize was that she was pouting as she thought about it.

She sighed as she looked back up to the vast beyond of the night sky. She loved how, even here, the stars shined brightly among the unending darkness of the opposite of day. She recalled briefly the nights she used to spend with Ben in the Oblivia Region. The stars shone even brighter in that remote corner of the world that just chose to live humble lives with Pokémon rather than construct metropolitan cities like the other major Regions in the world. She remembered how the two of them would joke as they connected the stars to match the Guardian Signs of the Oblivia region, pretending to summon the ancients of that region by tracing their fingers along the stars with no need to borrow their actual power to save the land… but rather… just enjoy their time in the romance of living out the legends and fantastic tales…

However, thinking of Ben made some old guilt and scars rise up again. When they first entered into the Obliva region, she was helpless as Ben had to sacrifice himself to shield an attack meant for her. Then she was captured for some time by the Pokémon Pinchers after being separated from Ben. Next, she recalled how helpless she felt as Ben and the others were forced to trade prisoners with her, essentially taking away the Ranger's only edge they potentially had.

Now she compared it to her most recent failure: her in ability to protect those helping her again! Now when she had the chance to help her new friends and stop the rampaging Absol a second time, she froze as the Pokémon in question showed a darkness she never saw before in such usually loveable creatures, which forced Anto's new Sawk a large amount of pain before he could finally repel the beast. Worst of all, she had gotten over her fear just to remember her current partners had been captured by that Pokémon who was already long gone, and she could do nothing but writhe in pain.

Wallowing in self pity, Summer began to tear up. "W-why? …Why can't I do anything right?" She curled up and buried her silent sobs into her arms and knees.

"Peon…"

Summer was slightly startled as she took her head out. To her surprise she saw an Espeon nuzzling his soft fur into her legs at her right side. Then she felt a similar presence to her left, and just so, a familiar Umbreon was softly leaning to her left shoulder.

Both Pokémon seemed to sense her despair and looked to be there to comfort her. She couldn't help but dry her tears and pet both creatures. She loved how soft their furs were to her touch, it was a strong sign that these two were cared for with much love.

"Feeling better, Ranger?"

The voice was calm as possible, but Summer couldn't help but yelp in surprise at the voice as she whipped her head behind her. There she saw Wes watching her with what she now realized were his Espeon and Umbreon in long gray jogging pants and a white t-shirt, probably also trying to sleep.

"S-Snagger Wes?! What are you doing here!?"

The tanned boy sighed and walked a few feet towards her, but then he sat a respectable distance away from her to honor how she needed her space. "Couldn't sleep, guess a comfy bed is going to take some adjusting to," He shrugged before motioning to his Pokémon. "You should pet them you know. Those two like it when someone pets and rubs their fur." He said distantly as he looked into the stars, not directly looking at Summer.

Summer stared a bit at Wes, but her hands were subconsciously rubbing the two separate twins gently which made both of them purr softly in enjoyment. For a second, she let her guard down and enjoyed lightly playing with the psychic and dark type. She giggled as the Umbreon, enjoying his petting so much, rolled over to his back to allow her to rub his stomach.

After having her fun with the two Pokémon for a minute, Summer looked back at Wes, who seemed to be finding the roof between her and him very interesting with his intense stare.

Summer was just confused at the idea that out of everyone, it was the person she is still currently trying to arrest was comforting her. Since from her experience, it was her and Ben who did the helping out people in need, even if it was the enemy. But this time, the enemy was helping her?

She was so bewildered by this odd turn of events and still somewhat distracted by her thoughts that the only word that came out of her was, "Why?"

Wes rubbed his forehead and shook his head. "Honestly? I don't know myself…" Wes shook his head disapprovingly. "Well, no. … That's not the real reason." He said as he looked at Summer. He opened his mouth again only to close it just as fast. He moved his hands, just to place them back down. He was struggling to explain his reasoning, but it looked like the reason was a big secret. Summer could tell that much, he actually wanted to tell her, but didn't know how to open up to her or maybe to anyone in general. After all, his idea of repaying Anto was to stalk him…

Yeah, he might need some help with that.

"You don't need to tell me why then," She smiled coyly, causing the Snagger to feel slightly on edge. "Seeing this side of you is cute enough as is." Wait. Did she just—

"Did you just say cute?" Wes pointed out.

"… Yes." Summer admitted blushing. She didn't know what compelled her to say that, but she decided to be completely honest with him. "I-I think it's kind of cute. …Y-you act so tough sometimes, but you're tactually a big softie. I mean look at the way these two Eveelutions are right now: they are just so well cared for because it really shows how gentle but powerful they are…" her blush died down a bit. She was a little relived that this feeling seemed to be respect and empathetic rather than anything remotely romantic. She continued on, trying to be completely honest from the heart. "You know I really thought you were a bad person when I first saw you. The way you snapped at me and ordered the others around made me think of the Pokémon Pinchers, a bunch of criminals that just misused Pokémon for their own greedy schemes. It was prejudice to do that now that I think about it. But you were just trying your way of helping us… although I think you might have a problem socializing with other people," She noticed Wes flinch slightly while his two Pokémon seemed to smile. Looks like she just found a weak spot to exploit later. "So I guess that I said it was cute… because you actually want to do good, but you don't exactly know how to do it…" Summer turned to Wes and gave him a genuine smile. "So… thank you, Wes."

Wes was dumbfounded at the absolute honesty from the Pokémon Ranger. It was his turn to have his mind throwing a million thoughts a second trying to figure Summer out for doing that. He felt like he needed to say something, but the only thing that came out was, "Man… you're weird."

Summer chuckled gently, rubbing Umbreon's stomach playfully. "Like there's a real normal person in the world."

Wes smirked as he thought about it.

"Point there." He admitted truly.

There was this odd experience coming from deep within Wes. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he never really felt this… what's the word he's looking for? Comfort? Maybe? He never really felt so… comfortable just talking to a person before. Why was that? He only listened to Gonzap out of respect and with some sense of repayment since he was pretty much the guy who raised him and gave him a roof over his head, but he never really received a feeling like… this while talking to this woman who still might arrest him as soon as she gets better from her injuries.

It felt nice just talking, and not just listening and thinking of sarcastic remarks of other people while rolling his eyes at the background. Wes could barely remember how long ago he had a 'heart to heart' with another human being.

"I… I didn't want to be a Snagger." Wes finally admitted causing Summer to look back at Wes from her star gazing.

Summer thought carefully about her next words. "You didn't?"

"No…" Wes confessed regretfully. "But then again, you can't choose where you're born and what happens to you."

A small period of pregnant silence followed.

Summer waited a bit for Wes to explain more, but he didn't say much more. It looked like he really was struggling to open up, but he was trying.

Before he could say anything more, Umbreon and Espeon got up and tensed towards a direction.

Summer looked in surprise at the two. "What's wrong?"

Wes got up, standing proactively before looking at the direction of where his two Pokémon were staring. "If even Umbreon is tense, I'm pretty sure they sense a large amount of psychic energy somewhere," He looked over to the roof, looking exactly where his two Pokémon sensed the spike of energy. "The gym of this town doubles as a museum right?" Wes asked Summer.

"Y-yeah. Why?" Summer stood up and looked to where Wes and his Pokémon where staring at.

"Unless the Gymleader of this town suddenly decided to change from training normal types into psychic types in 1:24 A.M. at the dead of night, something is off." Wes explained as he pointed to the gym.

Summer's eyes narrowed as she stared towards the gym. There was more trouble here in Unova? It figures this is just like her adventure with Ben back in the Oblivia Region: one thing after another. But she wouldn't falter, she wasn't going to give up! As a Ranger's duty it was her job to protect the innocent and help lives, and she wasn't going to back down if this really was a suspicious activity. Maybe it might be a lead on how to find Keith and Jack even!

"We have to investigate!" She proclaimed before heading back into her room.

"W-what? H-hey!" Wes grumbled as he saw Summer already run back into her room. He wanted to follow her, but saw her motioning her hands towards removing her shirt. That meant she was going to change back into her ranger uniform even though it was newly re stitched. Wes sighed and decided to go back into his room.

[Later…]

Waking up Anto, or Headband was out of the question. With the former deep asleep, while the later didn't quite trust him, Wes thought maybe he shouldn't have told the Ranger about potential suspicious activity if he knew that she would go rushing towards it without pause. He should have realized that when Anto had chased her the first time she woke up.

'_Dear, Celebi, she has a lot of energy!_' Wes mentally thought as he tried to catch up to the Ranger in his Snagger Uniform. He had to send Espeon ahead with Summer since he didn't want her to get into more trouble. If something happened to her, then Headband would grill him to no end, not that he feared him—heck no, but it would still be such a drag.

He was running with Umbreon to what already looked like the City outskirts until he heard a familiar voice cry out, "Freeze!"

He and Umbreon turned a corner and were surprised to see what looked to be a giant skeleton dragon facing down both Summer and Espeon over two large bridges.

"The heck!?" Wes cried as he joined up with Espeon and Summer.

"More intruders? I did not expect this." A voice complained disdainfully.

Wes squinted as he looked ahead. Thankfully, he designed his shades to not only to dim the harsh light of the sun, but to also reduce darkness deep within the unlit areas of the team Snaggem hide out. They were made from bits of leftover dead nocturnal Pokémon eyes, but that didn't bother him much if it got his previous jobs done. It wasn't effective as actual night-vision goggles, but it did his sight better in the darkness. He pulled his shades down and saw three oddly dressed females wearing some odd shield emblem with a P in the middle and he saw some oddly robed man with huge ears in front of them. The one who just spoke out must have been him. He quickly glanced at Summer, and was surprised that she wasn't using any sort of gear over her eyes to see. Could she see in this darkness?

"Hold it thieves! Return all of those stolen goods back into the Museum and accept arrest!" Summer cried as she pointed her Capture Styler towards them.

"A Pokémon Ranger?' The old man mused as he saw the device the girl was wielding. "All the way out here? … This may prove to be a problem."

"Hey you!" Wes called out, turning all attention towards him. "Didn't you hear her, you cult freaks?! Return the stolen goods!"

The females behind the old man screamed in outrage at that comment. "Cult freaks?! How dare that boy! We are Team Plasma!"

"Nope! Still calling you cult freaks!" Wes retorted easily. However, no one but his Pokémon noticed him using hand signals behind his back…

"You impudent, little boy," The old man spat in contempt, "You dare insult our holy cause and simply demand that we give in to your demands because you insult us?"

"Under what religion is stealing museum artifacts considered holy? Under the Pslams of the Book of Stupidity?" Wes riposted.

"Uh, stop goading the enemy!" Summer scolded Wes briefly.

"Do you even see how their dressed? The only smart thing they did was do this at night so on one would stare at their stupid outfits!" Wes replied to her.

"Turn off the snarky comments, Wes!" Summer yelled out annoyed.

Wes looked at her. "Why are you defending them? You're about to arrest them!"

Summer faced him with an exasperated look. "I'm trying to concentrate! And insulting the criminals only makes them want to do crimes more! I learned that in basic ranger Criminology 101!"

Team Plasma stared a bit as the two stared bickering in front of them. "Are they… ignoring us?" One grunt asked. (Wes: There is no way that's a real Criminology lesson!)

"How dare they show such disrespect… to their elders even! Kids these days…" Another female member added in. (Summer: Ha! I should know; I was top in my class!)

(Wes: Grats, you're a nerd!) "Oh they remind me how my parents first met. Ahh to be Young!~" The eldest of the three females cooed, earning odd looks from her younger juniors and the old man. "Err…"

"Well," The old man started. "I believe that an opportunity to get rid of a potential problem has presented itself to us, and we must take it."

Suddenly the skeleton started moving, Wes and Summer stopped their bickering to see the large ex-dragon moving.

The skeleton lifted its claw and launched it towards Summer, but the claw stopped as it made impact with a kinetic shield.

"What the—it's moving?!" Summer cried out surprise as she looked at the skeleton.

"It's probably a psychic or ghost Pokémon doing this!" Wes explained while looking at Espeon. "Espeon, wrestle control over it!"

The lavender Pokémon nodded before concentrating on the skeleton. It suddenly stood straight back up, then it trashed around a bit, smashing the bridge walls with awkward movements.

"Wes! Stop! At this rate the bridge would break before Espeon wins control!"

Wes looked around Team Plasma. "I don't get it, they don't have a Pokémon nearby, so how are they controlling this thing!?"

Summer's eye lit up and quickly looked at her Capture Styler. She pointed it towards the push cart with the other stolen goods before launching her disc at high speeds. The disc quickly smacked the coffin among the goods and the Skeleton stopped trashing around.

"What?" Wes yelped out.

Summer pointed to the coffin. "That's no coffin! The Capture Styler detects it as a Pokémon: Cofagrigus! A native ghost Pokémon here in Unova!"

Said Pokémon opened itself up from its coffin form and floated beside the old man. "It appears as time passes on, you become more of a rising problem." The old man calculated. He pointed to the ground beneath the skeleton. "We no longer need the skeleton, for it is not the dragon fossil we seek, but let us not let these cretins win. Cofagrigus, destroy the skeleton!"

"Oh no you don't! Now, Umbreon, Bite!" Wes exclaimed.

Everyone surprised to see a glow of yellow runes appear right behind the Coffin Pokémon, especially more so when the eyes opened up and pounced on the ghost type.

Summer quickly looked at her scanner. "Oh! I didn't notice you moving Umbreon!"

"Yeah, I moved him in when I was shouting at them. It's a good thing you actually decided to bicker with me. It was a lot easier to sneak him in there in case they tried something." Wes explained.

"Wait, you were doing that on purpose!?" Summer cried out.

"No time! Espeon, Confusion! Take back the push cart and the other artifacts while Cofagrigus is distracted!" Wes cried out hurriedly.

Espeon complied and pulled all of the objects away from Team Plasma. He brought it over them, and placed it back on the ground before the bridge.

"Now bring the skeleton over!" Wes commanded as Espeon was freely able to move the skeleton back over the bridge towards Nacerne City.

"You are testing my patience boy…" The old man darkly started.

"L-lord Grom…" One of the Ladies frighteningly spoke out as they saw their lord's expression.

"Cofagrigus, throw that creature off you and destroy the bridge!" He yelled angrily. This time, Cofagrigus used all of his hands in order to finally fling the dark type off his back and towards the bridge.

"Umbreon!" Wes cried out as he ran to catch his friend with Espeon close at hand.

"Wait!" Summer cried as she also went after Wes.

However, as soon as Wes caught Umbreon, the ground beneath them started to collapse. In a shock of powerful ghost energy, the bridge collapsed, causing all four people to fall!

Wes acted quickly, huddling Umbreon close and snatching Summer and Espeon mid fall. "Espeon, I know Umbreon is nearby, but try to slow our descent!" He yelled over Summer screaming.

Espeon tried, but their fall was only slowed as they both all made a splash into the rivers below.

"Hmph," Grom scoffed. "We must make haste. Lord N and Lord Ghetsis must learn of the presence of Pokémon Rangers being here." He said as all of Team Plasma disappeared into the night.

[Meanwhile]

Something felt warm again…

Anto slowly tried to regain consciousness. He slowly started to see himself looking towards the sea.

He was on the beach again. The second time he was in this weird dream.

Anto noticed something odd in the distance. It looked to be that same screen that he saw that had Takezo's odd stats.

Walking up to the object, Anto was surprised to see something new written on the flying screen:

Ohko/Sawk. Lv. 18+ (*Limit Surpassed*)

Ability: Sturdy. (At Full Health, prevents OHKO)

HP: 102 (+3—+4)

****Attack: 90 (+5)

*Defense: 57 (+3—+4)

-Special Attack: 5 (+0—+1)

Special Defense: 34 (+2—+4)

Speed: 42 (+2—+4)

Moves: Dual Chop, Double Kick, Reversal

Handicap: One armed.

Suggestion: Allow Ohko to wear a long robe or cloak to cover his body.

That was new. It's basically the same as Takezo only this time there are two extra notes on it.

Was it suggesting Ohko wear a long cloak? What for? … To hide from others he's only one armed when not fighting? … Hmm…

Too confusing to think about, Anto tried something else.

"Hello?" He called out in his own voice. It felt weird that as he dreamt he could imagine his own voice even when he technically never heard his own voice before he lost his memory.

Suddenly a large sound echoed through the small island. Anto looked back and was surprised to see a large gold ring opening up from somewhere he couldn't see beyond.

Out of the strange portal came a just as strange small creature. Anto wasn't entirely sure it was a Pokémon, but it felt like one.

The creature was like 1 foot tall, just like Takezo, but its colors were mixed with some whitish-gray along with pink. Specifically, rings seemed to be a theme with this Pokémon as its color shcme and patterns seemed to be rings all over the Pokémon. It had two horns with two gold rings dangling loosely but still tightly placed on the curved horns. It also wore a slightly larger gold ring on its lower torso. The odd thing about this little guy is that he seemed to be either psychic or ghost since he levitated without any legs, but it had small stubby arms that seemed to move in a mystic manner.

Said Pokémon, if it could be called that, turned its mischievous looking gold and yellow eyes towards Anto, a smile forming on its face.

Anto walked toward the small floating creature, its smile growing uncomfortably wider as he came closer to it. Stopping a few feet in front of it, he asked, "Who are you?"

"**So this is the place huh?**" The little Pokémon spoke out in what seemed to be a voice of a young arrogant boy. He ignored Anto completely and started surveying the area.

Anto sighed, it looked as if the creature didn't even seem to care about him. Anto studied the small creature again. He went over to how the creature reacted when he came into what felt like his dream. The small creature said, "So this is the place huh?" which meant that he was looking for this place, but it felt like he was more curious about this place. Anto thought this was him dreaming, but he was too conscious for this to be some very weird lucid dream. After all, his mind seemed to be working within itself, and he doubted he could actually try to make sense of things while he dreamt.

"**Hey you.**"

Anto looked up to see the small Pokémon staring at him with his arms folded.

"**Why'd you suddenly shut up? You ask me one thing and then never speak again! Most humans would have demanded to know what I am by now, or plain be rude and attack me.**"

Anto thought quickly for a few more seconds before answering, "You didn't seem interested in me when I called you out, so I didn't bother trying to press for something you wouldn't give me." Anto felt… familiar when he told out those words… did he say them to someone before?

The small creature placed one of his hands on his chin and made his face close in near to Anto's. Being startled, Anto took only two steps back from the uncomfortable position the small being was doing.

"**Huh. That makes sense. You're already the smartest human I came across, and trust me, I've seen a lot of humans,**" The wicked smile of the small creature came back, but Anto seemed to get used to it quickly. "**Oh you **_**are**_** an interesting human, and found in an interesting place too! This is going to be fun. Ah! I guess I could give you my name since you've already been in my awesome presence for more than a minute without me getting bored of you.**" The small being danced up slightly higher into the air and proudly puffed it's chest.

"**You humans refer to me as… Hoopa.**"

Anto blinked and briefly scanned the rings on the small Pokémon. "You said 'refer', so I'm guessing either you don't want to tell me what you really are or you don't mind what you are called."

The small Pokémon's smile only seemed to grow wider, more malicious. "**Ooh! Your way smarter than those stupid scientists that tried to get my powers. I'm just talking to you and you already seem to be guessing what I am? What did you humans call those types of humans that study actions? … Detectives? Profilers? In-laws?**"

"So is it either?" Anto repeated his question for this topic.

"**Meh, a bit of both really. It's personally a lot easier for mortals like you to pronounce.**"

Anto, seeing his chance, decided to ask Hoopa something, "Hoopa, unlike you, I don't know where or what this place is. In fact, between the two of us, you actually seem like you know something about this place since you freely entered here."

Hoopa raised his brow, but then something seemed to have caught his attention since he seemed to focus on something _behind_ Anto.

Anto hesitantly turned around and saw a large shadowy blob that looked vaguely like an Ursaring. It raised its giant palm into the air. Anto felt his sight failing.

"**Whoo boy!**" Anto vaguely heard Hoppa cry before hearing some strange sound and feeling a small light coming from the floating Pokémon behind him. "**Guards always hide something juicy!**"

That was the last thing Anto heard before he blacked out again in his dream.

When he woke up, he became even more confused. His dreams were just so… un explainable, yet he was lucid in all of them so far whenever he would have them.

Anto sat up from the bed he was borrowing in one the vacant rooms of the Pokémon Center. Anto glanced over to the window and saw it was still night. He glanced over to his clock, and rolled his eyes in exasperation; it was freaking 3 A.M. in the morning .They had finally reached Narcerne City, and he was not entirely glad at how on edge his new group was towards each other.

Tracey seemed a little disappointed and betrayed by Anto that he let Wes go the first time, even if it was for his memory, the fact he kept it a secret and didn't tell him made the older boy a little colder to him. He would have to somehow talk—or communicate with Tracey about this later.

They all had silently headed straight for the Pokémon Center to heal up and rest up for the day. Kindly, there were many spare rooms that day, so all four people had their own separate rooms. Anto felt bad about going to sleep, but that entire event gave him a migraine trying to plan how to converse with other people. He looked over to the window balcony to see both Takezo and Ohko sleeping out of their Pokéballs since he figured he could let them out to relax.

"_Great, I'm wide awake now, and I have to face Tracey and somehow talk to him… even though I'm mute. I have got to find a better way to express words…_" Cue imaginary light bulb. "_Oh well, I've got a good four hours to get the basics down. To the internet!_"

Anto slowly got out of his bed, as to not disturb his two Pokémon. By the time he opened up the door, he noticed both battle oriented Pokémon still out of it, probably deep into their third sleep cycle stage or something. He smiled softly before quietly closing the door behind him.

Anto looked at the hallway and made his way towards the public computers. On his way however, he failed to notice that the guest rooms for both Summer and Wes were occupying were left open, but were barely closed.

However, it would only be until much later when Anto learned of this fact.

[Somewhat Later In A Different Area…]

The first thing Summer thought waking up to see what looked to be a cave was about a cucumber flavored muffin.

After her mind did a basics comprehension check, she realized that she was in a cave; thus she attempted to recall why or how she came into this cave.

Then she remembered how she had followed after Wes when his Umbreon was hurled to the bridge. Thinking back at that, Summer was genuinely impressed that some Pokémon thief cared deeply for his own Pokémon, but would go so far for it. Then again, it was impossible for him to use Espeon to catch Umbreon because of their typing, but it didn't seem very smart of him to just run after Umbreon even after they heard how the Pokémon would destroy the bridge they currently were on. But had it been her Staraptor in a similar situation then she would have done the same exact thing, but…

"Wes!?" Summer screamed as she got up from whatever soft thing she was lying on. She was surprised to see a long, blue familiar coat on her that was covering her body to keep her warm. However, she noticed that her Capture Styler was once more off her. This gave an eerie sense of déjà vu.

"N-not again… I did it again…" Summer paled as she realized that in her enthusiasm to stop the bad guys, and probably to an unconscious extent to redeem herself, she had only caused more trouble for others.

She felt herself slump and grip her hind tightly. She just couldn't believe it, had she messed up again? So soon?

However, before she could further go down that road of self loathing, she was distracted by a familiar voice.

"Looks like your awake."

Summer turned to see Wes in a silver T-shirt and still wearing his dark jeans. There was also some kind of vine slung over his back. Espeon and Umbreon were out, but what caught Summer's attention was the fact Wes was currently holding her cracked capture Styler.

"Aah!" She yelled as she pointed to it.

"Calm down," Wes said as he slung the vine out of his shoulder, revealing some kind of bag pack made of leaves. "First eat up, I found some berries you could chew on before we could get back to Narcerne City."

"B-but my styler!" Summer whined as she tried to get up. Wes stopped her by motioning his hand in front of her.

"Don't worry about it too much," Wes explained casually while looking to Espeon. "Espeon, Confusion please."

The lavender Pokémon nodded before concentrating on the broken device. It floated into the air between them…

Before separating in a small burst.

Summer watched in wonder with all the small and large pieces floating around her that made up her Capture Styler. She saw Wes stare at all of the now levitating components of her broken Capture Styler mid air thanks to Espeon. She had to admit it was pretty clever of him to ask his psychic Pokémon to carefully unmake the complicated device without any form of damage.

She saw Wes reach for a green circuit board floating around the center.

Wes clicked his tongue in disappointment as he saw a large crack right in the middle of it. "Well this is a problem: your display adaptor is cracked, probably from the impact of the fall. Not to mention this is custom made for your specific mark of Capture Styler… is this a flexible, Sliph Co brand GPU Heat Sink? Wow, so this is what high quality looks like," Wes whistled since he was impressed at the craftsmanship of something that was supposed to be factory manufactured. He held the small object away from the cracked Dis—um… thing he got and placed it back into the air for His Espeon to levitate. "Wish I had one of those when I was back in Orre. The warranty for these things could have lasted a good twenty years compared to the broken ones I had to scavenge for in the junkyards. Anyway, the only way to fix this would be to replace it… Summer? What's with that look?" Wes finished rambling as he took a look at a growing, sly grin on Summer's face.

Summer was rather intrigued, confused, and pleasantly pleased hearing Wes briefly mention technical stuff she didn't understand. It made her think back to a certain point of their conversation last night. "Oh nothing, it's just that to know all of that kinda makes _you a nerd_!" She mocked triumphantly.

"Huh? What are you—" Wes instantly recalled himself calling Summer a nerd as an insult earlier that day. "Oh. I was just kidding when I said that. You know, to distract them? Look, these things have been made to take punishment from the heaviest Pokémon attacks, but I was wondering how a simple fall was able to crack it. That's when I remembered something: did you actually bother trying to fix this thing or check for damages after your encounter with the Absol?"

The wide eyed and unmoving look in Summer's face was more than enough of an answer to Wes.

"Well, on the bright side, I think I can fix this so that its main function of capturing other wild Pokémon is still intact, but as for all the other features… they were custom made, so unless you order a new batch or a new Capture Styler all together then that's all I can do."

Summer stared ponderously as Wes collected several other damaged gear as well, but this time keeping it in his arms. She was rather surprised at how good he was at this, since he looked nothing that could signify him being a mechanic of sorts. "Wow… you're really good at tech stuff. You remind me of a technician named Nema, she is a great friend of mine and I think you'll get along fine with her!"

Wes rubbed the back of his head. "Last time I checked, socializing wasn't my forte…"

"Oh then I can help you with that!" Summer proudly declared. "I was also one of the most likeable people in my classes!"

Wes smirked. "Wow, you must have had some boring classmates." He deadpanned as he told her.

"W-what!? Ben was anything but boring!" Summer cried out. She pouted before rolling up Wes' coat and tossing at the tanned boy.

Wes caught his coat and started to put it back on. "Man, still a little damp at the bottom. I was so surprised how quickly your clothes dried themselves. It took me hours to dry my clothes back,"

Summer's ego was stroked while hearing the compliments Wes was giving about the Ranger Union gear. "Ha! Ranger uniforms are made to withstand the elements! These marked uniforms can even survive underwater scuba diving, and will dry off instantly because they based technology of the skin of Pokémon with the Dry Skin abi—" Summer stopped mid sentence as she realized a certain word replaying in her head with a similar memory of a recent event.

Espeon seemed to cringe slightly while Umbreon took a step back. Espeon then slowly moved all the floating pieces away from Wes and Summer.

"What?" Wes asked in confusion at the odd reaction everyone was making but him. What was going on? Did he miss something?

"Wes…"

Wes looked back to Summer. She wasn't the cheery, energetic girl she was a second ago. Now she was slightly flushed at the face and oozing with something akin to bloodlust.

Summer tried to keep a straight face as she stared at Wes, but she seemed to be struggling to either glare or cry. "… When you thought I was soaked, and after you found shelter… did you try to strip me?"

The silence afterward was deafening.

"..."

"…"

"…"

"WES!?" Summer yelled, her blush reaching the ends of both her ears.

"Yes but I didn't!" Wes quickly yelled, showing panic for the first time in who knows how long. "I was just going to have Espeon privately remove your clothes and give you some—"

Summer hugged her arms around her body. "You were going to have my clothes torn off by your Pokémon!? You vile beast!"

"N-no! I swear I wasn't going to be there! But I didn't want you to get sick from wet clothes! But then I found out that your clothes were dry—"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS DRY!?" Tears starting to appear in Summer's face.

"I had to check if you were still conscious!" Wes wailed, taking a step back.

"You coped a feel for me!? You pervert! I'm arresting you for sexual harassment!" Summer's face was filled with blood while her eyes were starting to tear up.

"I didn't do that, I swear!" Wes yelled back, shaking his hand in front of him. "Look calm down, you might be disturbing other Pokémon!"

But as one might have guessed, Summer wasn't listening (She pretty much was refusing to listen and filtering out anything sensible) she ended up using both her hands to pick up what she thought was a moderately large stone. "You perverted sicko!" She yelled as she held the potential blunt weapon over her head, but she didn't notice the look on both of the Eeveelution Pokémon when they saw her weapon of choice, nor did she notice in her adrenaline induced rage that said item was not just being moved by her surprising strength.

"Summer, calm down!" Wes cried panicking, but then he noticed something about the supposed rock Summer was carrying. "Sum—"

"Dee!?"

Blam!

"Huh?" Summer snapped out of her rage to realize her projectile had just yelped. There was a moderately sized half dark blue, half black furry object on Wes' face.

Wes grabbed the small creature, causing it flail around mid air again while constantly repeating small squeals over and over again. Disgruntled, Wes got up, still with the creature in hand. "Wow, attacking an innocent bystander _with_ a wild Pokémon. What kind of Pokémon Ranger are you?"

Summer rebutted masterfully. "I thought it was a rock!"

"That makes me feel better!" Wes yelled back before looking at the little guy struggling in his arms. "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you." He said before putting him down.

The small little Pokémon, calmed down as he was put down, but then he seemed to turn his head towards Summer then instantly hid behind Wes' leg.

"I'm not a native to Unova, so what is this Pokémon?" Wes asked as he turned to Summer.

Summer sighed dejectedly as she saw the horrified look on the Pokémon's face. "I think he's a Deino, a dual type of both dragon and dark here in the Unova Region, but I remember reports saying they're usually found north up in Unova and not around this vicinity…" Summer thought as she looked around. Then she noticed something odd to where she was originally sleeping. "Hey Wes, did you make a straw pillow for me to lie on?"

"What? No, I—crap. Last night was really dark and I couldn't see well even with Umbreon's help. When we found this cave, I asked Umbreon to scout out a good spot to place you. I sort of wanted to dump you since I was still soaking wet and I didn't want a cold, so I neglected to properly check where I placed you." Wes explained. With the sun now up, he now saw what looked to be a nest around the area he let Summer sleep on. "Summer, you told me this little guy is a dragon type. Almost all dragons are pseudo legendaries, please tell me this is one of those rare dragon types that don't evolve…"

"Umm, the fully evolved version of these Pokémon are Hydreigon, and they're known to be particularly nasty among the dragon types." Summer explained meekly.

Wes sighed. "Espeon, place the Capture Styler back together, except for the stuff I'm carrying, and give it back to Summer. We're heading back to town now that she's awake."

"W-wait!" Summer tried to cry out, while Espeon did what he was told, making the floating machinery back into one-semi-cracked piece before making float back to Summer who took it easily. "What about the Deino?" She pointed to the little creature that was still hiding behind Wes' leg.

"You want his mother—"

"Technically, Hydreigon have three heads, so it's also OK to call her 'Mothers'." Summer corrected quickly.

Wes seemed annoyed by that. "Point is, we don't want to be here anymore when they or she come back and assume the worst!" He said as he started moving. "Come on, while you were a sleep I was able to find a path way that leads us back to the main road."

Summer noticed that as soon as he started moving, so did the Deino.

After everyone walking a few steps out of the cave, Wes turned around and faced the Pokémon. "Look, Deino, wait for your mom in your cave and don't follow us. STAY." Wes finished, carefully enunciating that last word.

The slight drool accumulating on the Pokémon's mouth as well as the unmoving, blank stare was not very assuring to the Snagger and Ranger.

Summer was the first to take a step back.

Deino didn't move.

Espeon and Umbreon followed Summer.

Deino didn't move.

Wes made a step back.

Deino, surprisingly, didn't move.

Summer stepped back again, a little unsure; Espeon and Umbreon the same; Wes took a step back with them.

Deino was still drooling.

The group then decided that the little dragon did understand them despite his expression, so they turned around and went their way.

Deino followed them.

The group stopped as soon as they heard the extra pair of legs following them.

Wes felt the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose but resisted. "OK, new plan: we make a break for it and lose the new born," Wes ruthlessly analyzed. "It might not be coordinated enough to keep up with us in a mad sprint, so it'll be easy to lose him." He reasoned.

Horrified at such a cruel idea, Summer voiced her dissent. "What no! What if it gets lost trying to follow us!?"

Wes fought the urge to frown at Summer. She was right, but he didn't really want to care. "Ugh, I can't believe I miss being with Team Snagem…" Wes muttered to himself at the annoyingly caring girl in front of him. He then looked over to the cave they left. "Do we just take him with us?"

That idea was also shot down. "You can't do that either! The mother would be so heartbroken!"

Wes was starting to question why he left the thieving business if was going to be exposed to all this… caring about others? Just trying to open up to one of them was hard enough—look at where it got him! 'Mental note: next time, try to bond with the mute.' Wes thought to himself. At least if anything, he couldn't tell anyone his problems even if he wanted to. "Well I'd like to hear your take on this please." He asked her with traces of sarcasm in his voice.

"…" Summer looked at the Deino then back to Wes. "By any chance do you still have some left over berries?"

Wes didn't know where this was going, but if there was any constellation about all of this, he was glad he was no longer in Orre.

[Meanwhile, in a place far away…]

Back within the Orre Region, two lowly looking people were having trouble carrying a sack down a large, highly scientific hallway.

"Dang it, Folly, are you sure we're heading the right way?" a black haired man with blond hair wearing a hat that looked eerily similar to a certain copyrighted mouse of a famous channel asked his partner.

"Don't ask me, Trudly, I was following you!" Folly, a blond man with red accents at the tip of his somewhat Mohawk complained back as he struggled to carry said sack.

"… Blergh! Help! Robbers!" The sack cried out in a girly voice.

"What!? Robbers!? We're kidnappers, **kidnappers**!" Folly corrected.

"Idiot!" Trudly scolded. "Don't shout that out! … But you're too late girly. We're already in big ol' house."

Their bag suddenly stopped squirm so much. "W-what?"

"Trudly, Folly," A powerful, calm voice echoed in the high tech hallways. "I received a message from Mirror B that you two were bringing something to my lab."

"Boss Ein!" Both grunts stopped what they were doing and saluted to the owner of the voice, a rather handsome looking scientist with an air of calculating cruelty with black hair. However, in their salute, they dropped the sack which opened up during the fall.

"Oops!" Folly cried out.

A girl with bright orange-red hair popped out the bag with a thud. "Ow!"

The scientist walked towards the fallen girl, followed by a male and an odd silver uniform with a helm that appeared from the shadows, his personal bodygaurds.

Trudly and Folly stepped hurriedly out of the way of the intimidating man.

"Is this the girl who you said could see Shadow Pokémon?" The scientist asked Trudly and Follow while not taking his eyes of the girl.

"My name is Rui!" The girl cried as she stood up and stared down the scientist. "And what did you do to that poor Pokémon!?" She pointed at him.

Ein pushed up his glasses. "I see…" He mumbled to himself as he completely ignored the girl's rants. Rui's expression changed from anger to fear as she saw the vicious smile appear on the scientist's face.

"It appears I have more research to do…"

**{Author's notes}**

**What? Did you think with Wes in Unova, the events of Colosseum wouldn't happen?**

**Heheh.**

**I actually wanted to include more in this chapter, but after seeing the staggering word count closely reaching that 'Over 9000' meme, I decided to end it here.**

**A lot of things happened in this chapter! Anto briefly meets with Hoopa! Wes and Summer's have character development this entire chapter! (They also fight against team Plasma!) Rui looks doomed at the hands of Ein!**

**This adventure looks crazier and crazier!**

**And it's only going to get even crazier from here! **

**Now let me take a minute to talk about what I did with Wes for this story.**

**I thought I would play with his character a bit and give him a background in hardware. I borrowed a bit from Cyrus' (From team Galactic) background in that he spent more time with machines than people. Wes, growing up in Team Snaggem didn't have many human friends, nor was there a possibly good choice in a potential friendship due to the fact other than he and Wakin were the only competent commanders among non-competent people. **

**If he reacts a bit of a snob with all those sarcastic remarks then that's a bit on purpose. Since he spends his time around simple thugs and always doesn't want to socialize with them, effectively worsening his ability to properly socialize with normal people which is why he comes off as a little awkward even though he tries to open up.**

**For Summer, I thought I'd try something a bit. That idea of failing over and over again. It's a terrible feeling of course. (And something I have experience with.) It's hard to not want to quit when you make mistakes that other people seem to suffer for, even more so when you keep doing it. It hasn't been completely solved here. But later on with the story as her friendship with Wes and the others grow it should be solved. (here's too hoping I can pull something like that off.)**

**Now, here comes a question I want to ask you all:**

**Should I pair up Summer with Wes?**

**Hmm…**

**Maybe I should create a new shipping?**

**Oh gods. W-what do I call it?**

**One is an Ex-team snaggem member and one of the best. And the other is a Pokémon Ranger, also one of the best.**

**If I'm going to create a shipping, the name has to be catchy, sticks, and relates somewhat to the people who are in a pair!**

**How about…**

**Paradoxshipping?**

…

**Fund it.**

**In all seriousness, I found writing Summer and Wes' interactions insanely fun. And if I do decide on making them a couple then I will at least give it time and let it nurture, I absolutely loathe it when characters are forced together. **

**One of the main reasons why I think this would work is because I took an odd look at Rui in Colosseum, and Summer in Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs.**

**This red headed girl… *points to Rui* is a girl that follows around Wes in her game to offer dialogue and exposition after she is rescued by Wes from kidnappers. *Points to Summer* Summer is a Pokémon Ranger that the male protagonist has to save from being kidnapped and afterward follows the male protagonist almost everywhere offering exposition and dialogue.**

…

…

**Mother of G—**

**Yes, I know that they aren't completely the same, but seeing the major similarities makes me want to do it, unless you guys say otherwise.**

**Also, while on that topic, why don't you guys review?! I appreciate the follows and likes, I really do, but you guys are saying nothing about this story! I don't know if you like certain things, or want some stuff changed! I'm so desperate for reviews that I'm almost thinking of pulling off the ultimate review ensuring maneuver…**

**I'm not kidding, I found out that it works, but it's kind of cheap, so I don't want to use it… yet. (And if I do use it, I swear I will incorporate it well into the story since I have feedback from it.)**

**Anyway that's enough rambling. Thank you for reading.**


	9. Ep 9: Baby Steps

Episode 9: You can fall, but keep a safety net ready. I suggest the best kind of net, 'A true friend', those are the best.

"_OK… Lesson learned… never underestimate lesson or overestimate cramming ability. It doesn't work._" Anto thought to himself as he wiped his dry eyes from staring too long at the screen.

"**Anto!?**"

"**Boss, we gots a problem!**"

Anto turned around to see Ohko and Takezo running towards him.

"_Good morning guys. Wait, what do you mean we have a problem? We just dealt with one yesterday!_" Anto thought aghast.

"**Well as the human saying goes, 'little rest for the weary',**" Takezo voiced out. Before Anto could comment on the typo in his excerpt, Takezo went on. "**Our two new human allies have disappeared.**"

"_Wes and Summer are gone? When!? The main lobby is right out there from the computer lounge. I would have seen those two leave from here!_" Anto thought since from his seat he could easily spot the main entrance and exit of the Pokémon Center.

"**Then they musta left earlier or something,**" Ohko offered his opinion. "**Point is they're gone, and I don't think they would go and abandon us for no reasons. They ain't look like the types to flee.**"

Anto nodded at that. It's true, both Wes and Summer don't seem like the type to ditch them. Wes was the most likely to ditch them, but Anto figured he would do it at better terms and not at such an odd and weird timing such as this one. There was also the possibility that Summer somehow knew Wes was leaving and followed him, but she couldn't be that reckless. When she first ran off, it was because she was worried about her friends, Anto could understand that, but then again he barely knew what character Summer actually had, so what had happened?

"_This doesn't make any sense, why would they leave?_"

Takezo gave an answer, but it was announced more like a question than a proper theory, "**Perhaps they eloped?**"

…

"_What is it with you and humans mating? Are you some kind of pervert?_" Anto questioned.

"**What's elope?**" Ohko curiously asked.

"**Apologizes, most of my assumptions with Human interactions with each other come from a rather dubious source.**" Takezo announced passively.

Raising a brow, Anto saw something odd about his small friend's sentence, "_How dubious are we talking?_"

"**Let me simply reveal that I have been with other humans before you, Anto. But I promise to tell you more about the topic later. The matter at hand must be dealt with first.**" Takezo dismissed.

"_Fine, let me get Tracey. I'll be out in a bit cause I got to get something for you Ohko._" Anto explained quickly before standing up.

"**You gots something for me?**"

Anto shrugged his shoulders. "_I kind of had a dream about it._"

[Afterward…]

Tracey, Anto, Takezo, and Ohko were running down the street. Takezo was at point being the one who had remembered Summer's and Wes' scent and were in pursuit.

"I can't believe they both left! I at least expected Summer to tell us before running after Wes." Tracey complained.

Anto glanced somberly at Tracey.

Figures he was still cautious around Wes and it's no surprise that the older boy felt some animosity towards him. The two had technically fought against each other and Wes had stolen a Musharna earlier back. Their first impression of each other had been… sour and it was only because of Anto's request that they had let him off.

Then Anto also had to worry about how Tracey felt toward him. He probably feels betrayed that Anto didn't mention anything about Wes having a clue about his memory—which reminded him, he didn't have a chance to search up Dimension Enterprise yet. Still, that was a rather stupid thing Anto did back then, but he was glad he did it. If he didn't Wes wouldn't have been there to help them against that Absol. Yet if that didn't happen, Anto would have just let a potential criminal loose to the public.

… Thinking briefly about it: Anto wondered what exactly were those words he heard when he actually debated in turning Wes over? What were those words again?

It would have to wait as a familiar voice up ahead shouted, "**Stop!**"

Anto looked over to Takezo.

"Anto, I thought you said Takezo had their scent, is something wrong?" Tracey asked the boy who could only shrug his shoulders at why he suddenly asked them all to stop.

"**Ya need to sneeze or something?**" Ohko asked casually as he fixed his new cloak. It was technically a slightly run down, white blanket sheet that was fashioned by Nurse Joy to cover a majority of Ohko's body up to the area between his knees and feet. She went the extra mile by sewing a hood from the leftover cuts… though Ohko didn't need a hood.

Takezo looked over to Ohko. "**It's not that. It's that I sense several other familiar scents.**" He finished before pointing ahead.

Tracey looked over to see two people walking ahead of them, and several Pokémon surrounding the two people. However, the one person ahead of the other person looked very familiar.

"Hey? Is that?" He questioned before cupping his mouth to direct his voice. "Hey Black!"

The ambitious young trainer turned around at the call of his name. The other person, a tall but rather stylish man wearing green with a Venipede on his shoulder and a Whirlipede by his side also looked toward Tracey's call.

"Oh!? Tracey, Anto! What brings you two over here?" Black asked.

The Watcher and Amnesiac tensed at such a simple question. Mostly because of the huge fact that they had made a temporary truce with Wes, and Black didn't have the best first meetings with him. "Err… it's a long story…" Tracey started.

However, Black immediately turned away. "Then in that case, tell me later I'm in the middle of something important."

"Are you also so rude to your friends?" The man asked Black teasingly. He turned over to greet Anto and Tracey with a pose. "If you are his friends I do pity you, but my name is Burgh, an artist if you will." He bowed lightly.

As he did, Black was already some distance away from them.

"Huh? Black? U-oh, sorry Burgh, I'm Tracey and this is Anto." Tracey, briefly motioned to the waving boy beside him.

Burgh nodded and proceeded to follow Black. "Good to know he has friends like you. You people must be really nice to stick with him."

Tracey didn't know what to say about that, until he suddenly saw Black stop all of them and hide behind a corner.

"Get back!" Black harshly whispered to the three of them.

"What? What is it?" Burgh asked, slowly peeking over Black to what he was looking at.

Burgh's eyes widened. "The bridge is destroyed!"

"It is?!" Tracey yelled as he and Anto jumped out of the corner. Black and Burgh followed them and they all saw that one of the two bridges exiting the city had been destroyed and all of the museum artifacts right in front of it.

"What are museum artifacts doing out here!?" Tracey yelled out before trying to walk to them. However, Black stopped him.

"Wait, I was called today by Lenora of the Nacrene City Gym, and her assistant told us that those artifacts were stolen. If they left it out in the open like this, they may be trying to bait us."

Anto surprised everyone by pointing ahead of them, and showing them that his Patrat was already nearby the museum artifacts and sniffing them.

"Is that your Patrat, boy?" Burgh asked Anto with curiosity in his voice. "The way he moves, the way he wields that wooden blade… I feel inspired just looking at such a unique Pokémon! And your Sawk as well! What a stylish choice in giving him a cloak, it makes him look even more intimidating! I feel inspired!" He stated as he made his fingers make a pretend frame around him and Ohko.

Anto blushed at the compliment and just scratched the back of his head.

"Huh? Odd… I thought it was a trap." Black walked up to the artifacts, looking around seeing almost no sign of danger since Takezo was already there. He took some steps forward and studied the area where the bridge was destroyed.

"Wait, why would the thieves leave the artifacts they stole, and not set up a trap?" Tracey asked out loud.

Black and Brav walked behind Takezo who was surveying the edge of the broken bridge.

It was then he took out another Pokémon, Musha or Munna as he called him.

Curious to see what Black was trying to do, Burgh and Tracey their curiosity turned to panic when Munna chomped on Black's head.

Anto stopped both of them and gave them a calming look that told them things were alright despite what was in front of them.

Black removed Munna of his head and turned back to them passionately. "The thieves ran away!"

"Huh?" Burgh and Tracey repeated.

"Someone else confronted the thieves and was able to get back the artifacts, and they had a battle for it. But the thieves were sore losers and broke the bridge they were on."

"How'd you know that?" They asked.

"The way the bridge was destroyed; the rubble left over in the river looks scattered, if the bridge just gave away, the rubble wouldn't be scattered all over down below," Black briefly explained and pointed to the debris blocking some of the water flow. Then he checked the concrete beneath him and saw how dusty the whole place was. "Also, on the other side of the bridge, you can see some cracks around the outer fences, which could signify how the fight happened in the middle of the broken bridge…"

"Interesting deduction…" Burgh admitted. "But if what you say is true, then those poor people must have fallen into the river after recovering the items. Whoever stopped the thieves must have been a courageous and noble soul."

At the sound of those words, Anto's brain started cranking.

Summer and Wes disappeared last night. Summer is a Pokémon Ranger, which is technically a police, which means she would try to stop a burglary if it was happening nearby her. Wes was a thief, but he had the Pokémon power to help or chase after Summer if he needed to be. Now Black was saying that there was some kind of battle on the bridge, a battle that Wes could have been partaking. And Burgh just said a noble and courageous soul, which kind of relates to Summer.

Summer and Wes were gone, and Takezo was looking over the bridg—

"_Crap._" Anto looked over to Black. Just like Tracey, Black didn't have the best first impressions of Wes when they first met. He really hoped that Wes and Summer were alright, but wondered how he could get Black away from here.

He did have an idea.

… But it meant nothing if he couldn't speak out and get their attention—dang it, being mute sucked!

"I wonder if it was Summer." Tracey spoke out his thoughts.

"_Oh come on!_"

"Summer?" Burgh questioned. "Who is she?"

"Oh we met her recently, she's a Pokémon Ranger. She was staying with us to heal up her wounds."

"_Dang it, Tracey! Stop talking! Switch being mute with me!"_

"Wounds?" Black repeated.

"Uh… Oh! Right… a lot of things happened since we last met…" Tracey looked sheepishly to Anto.

"… _What? … Dude, I'm mute, don't make me answer something you caused!_"

Anto gave a disappointed glare at Tracey before righting something down. "I'm running out of paper."

Burgh seemed surprised at that. "Oh? You can't speak?"

Anto noticed Black averting his gaze elsewhere, being the only guy to realize Anto's special ability.

"Y-yeah, Anto here is mute!" Tracey quickly jumped in, changing the subject.

"He is?"

Black interrupted them. "Uh guys? That thing about this Summer girl being injured seems important. Can we stick to that please?"

Leave it to Black to stay in topic.

Anto really wished something else was happening right now.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

… So apparently the universe didn't hate him…

* * *

As for the other group, they were making their way back up toward the road Wes found.

They had to deal with the problem of a baby Deino following them around and potentially attracting it's hypothetical and dangerous mother after them. To stop the little one from following them too closely, Summer suggested that they gather berries once more and give it to the dark-dragon type to eat. While the little one devoured his meal of the day, they would bolt for it.

It went off without a hitch, or at least it looked to be at first glance.

Wes couldn't help but notice the limp whenever Summer stepped with her right leg. He had to admit though, if he wasn't as perceptive, Summer could have hidden her sore leg well from him. The slight twitches she would make whenever she would step were very subtle and well restrained. Wes wondered why she even pushed herself so hard if she hadn't properly healed from her injuries. At this rate, she might not be so lucky next time.

Still he had this nagging feeling that if he told her outright, she would completely deny such a thing and might push herself even more to convince him she was fine. The girl was unbelievably stubborn, but she was no use to anyone if she kept pushing herself like this.

So then how would he go about doing this?

Wes groaned. "Can we take a break, I think I pulled a ham string or something after our sprint," Both Summer and he stopped climbing up a slope mountain path for a second. "I thought it would get better but it still annoys me. Mind if I sit down for a bit?" He stated nonchalantly before sitting on a nearby rock.

Summer looked surprised at the boy. "W-what!? We wasted enough time as is! Anto and Tracey must be worried about us!" Summer reasoned to Wes.

"Can't say the same for Anto, but last time I checked Headband and I don't see eye to eye."

Summer sighed before seeing another flat rock beside Wes and taking it. "Well from what I briefly caught, you had a fight with him?"

Wes scoffed. "Funny thing about that: I actually fought Anto. We even got into a nasty fist fight, but he's the one who trusts me between the two. If anything he should hate me more, but he was the one who vouched for me? Guess you were right, there aren't much normal people here."

Summer looked at Wes ponderously. "By the way… I didn't ask so much, but… Anto is mute… and has Amnesia?"

"Well, yeah… it's kind of weird if you think about it. But what I found that was even weirder was how he seemed to 'command' his Pokémon even though says nothing."

Summer seemed to have trouble tying those words together. "Wait, he what?"

"It was back when we first met. His Patrat was able to coordinate so well in a two versus one against my Pokémon, and he didn't say a single word. Next was the fact that I overheard his friends calling him mute. There was just something off about him even when I thought I knocked him out cold by tackling him from the sky. Then again, he was able to hot wire my Zoomer and slam a Cacnea into my face…"

The look on Summer's face showed that she had become even more confused at the sheer strangeness of how they met. "I'm sorry, you lost me at, 'tackling him from the sky'. How exactly did you meet with Anto?"

"… Well that story is a bit long, but I guess I can spare some time. It all goes back to a recent donation Team Snagem received from the black market associates of Dimension Enterprises. Gonzap, our leader, was told to come to one of the southern most points in Orre's continent, known as Sharpedo's Bluff. Believe it or not, it's an actual rock formation that looks like a Sharpedo. Anyway, when he brought a group there to find out what was going on, there was a large empty mobile ferry, a military class, corvette supplied with anti-infared and anti-radar stealth jammers that *Cough* sorry, getting off topic," Wes stopped himself from droning on about the features of the high tech boat. "Basically, it was a high tech and large boat. With it we finally had the means to travel into a new region, and some of the navigation systems were suspiciously set to Unova's region by default… not that anyone cared at the time, even me."

Wes went on about how he was chosen as part of the team in leading the expansion group mostly because he was the only one in the team who could even figure out how to work the Jamming and Stealth equipment. (All they needed to do was read the manual. Lazy bald men...) Then he had to admit he was kind of curious of the world outside Orre. He didn't know what it was like, but he also so it as his 'opportunity.'

Wes then explained what happened in Unova and finding a potential new base in area called the Dreamyard before regaling Summer the tale of how he originally met Anto and Tracey.

Summer listened with some animosity, especially after hearing how they brought horrible machines called Snag Machines with them. She was quite glad to hear that Anto destroyed 'all of them' from Wes… even though Wes was quite irked at the memory.

"… And you know the rest." Wes unceremoniously finished.

Summer stared at him for a bit. "How could you just steal Pokémon like that? Those Snag Machines are terrible!"

"So you tell me, but most of them are destroyed now and I know now one is smart enough in Team Snagem to ever recreate those things." Wes dismissed.

"Wait… 'most'?"

Wes tensed at his slip of the tongue. There was a reason why he specifically kept the newest model of the Snag Machine with him; it was to serve as bargaining chip if anyone back at Team Snagem came looking for him, or ultimately used to scare them away if only he had the ability to steal a trainer's Pokémon. To be honest, only Anto seemed to notice that, but there was no real reason to hide it from her so he told her about it.

He regretted it instantly.

Wes forgot how passionate Summer could be since she literally tried to pry the machine off his left arm, not knowing that it was braced on tightly around said limb.

"Summer, let go!" Wes cried out annoyed that the girl was trying to destroy something he clearly said he needed, both the machine and his arm still fashioned tightly to the machine.

"This machine is horrible! I can't believe you would carry something around like this!" Summer cried in between pulls.

"I told you my reason for keeping it!"

"But what's stopping you from using it!?"

Wes stopped a moment and gave a blank expression. "… Well there haven't been any Pokémon worth stealing lately aside from Anto's Patrat…" He started thoughtfully.

Summer pulled harder.

"That was a joke! I won't use it!" Wes complained.

"How can I believe you!? Seriously, I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't do that!" Summer yelled adamantly.

"How about 'I really am starting a new life'!?"

"You can do that without this!"

"While I can, I don't want to!" Wes shouted back. "Look can we stop doing this; you're tearing off my arm!"

"Fine!" Summer yelled out, throwing her hands out in exasperation. Before sitting back down and sighing dejectedly. She glared at Wes. "If you so much as think about using it…"

"Duly noted." Wes shot back.

A small time of silence passed between the two. In that small period, Summer stared unblinkingly at Wes, while Wes tried his best to ignore that. It was like she was trying to figure him out or something.

Or maybe she had already realized the truth behind this little conversation…

"All right, that's enough we can go now." Summer stood up.

Wordlessly, Wes also stood up in agreement.

It's too bad a large explosion had to catch their attention.

"What was that?" Wes asked.

Pokémon were seen running away from the explosion.

Then a loud roar—several roars—filled the air.

"… Hey, isn't that the direction where we found that Deino?" Summer asked out loud.

Wes nodded.

"You don't think…" Summer turned to Wes.

"We snuck out before the Pokémon could finish his first berry. There's no way he could have found us." Wes reasoned.

The next explosion and ear-piercing screeches in the distance were not making them feel comfortable.

Now there were random beams of darkness and other energy being shot randomly in the air.

"S-still," Summer started. "We have to stop whatever Pokémon is causing this destruction."

"Dee."

Both humans slowly turned their heads to Wes' side, where they saw a playfully panting Deino with his tongue sticking out and wagging his small tail energetically.

"…"

The two humans stared as another blast and shrill cry came out—then another explosion.

"Ee!" Dieno sneezed.

The two human looked back at the undisturbed baby Pokémon.

How did it even follow them without being noticed?

Wes sighed.

"We have to go back!" Summer yelled passionately.

"Wait!" Wes called out, grabbing her arm which caused her to wince. Wes' eyes widened at her reaction, it was more expressive than he thought it would be. "You were that injured?!" He wasn't a doctor, but he could tell that her muscles were not supposed to be this hot or tense.

"I-I'm fine! Let go!" Summer tried to dismiss.

"Are you kidding me?! You keep forcing yourself! Do you want to die or something?!" Wes didn't understand why she was pushing herself so hard. What the heck was she thinking pushing herself so hard almost as if she was suicidal?!

"Of course not!" Summer pulled away her hand forcefully and activated her Capture Styler. "But I won't just stand here and let others suffer for my mistake!" She ran off the ledge and jumped, much to the shock of Wes.

Summer launched her disc downward to a running Pokémon, a Scolipede.

Despite her injuries, she still was able to quickly capture the large bug and poison Pokémon mid air before landing on it, softening her fall.

"Scolipede, I need your help!" She yelled and pointed the Pokémon back towards the firing beams and roars in the distance.

Wes clicked his tongue when he saw Summer leave so quickly, slightly impressed by her skill despite her aching muscles.

He looked back to the actual cause of this, the Deino.

"Come on, you little runt, we have to return you to your mother." Wes ran off keeping the containers of Espeon and Umbreon ready.

* * *

Summer knew that a Hydreigon would be troublesome to calm down. Thankfully, it was a dark and dragon type, so if she could just find a fairy Pokémon, she'd be able to calm the dragon down.

Just like that Whimsicott she was passing by…

"Capture on!" She cried as she launched the disc. She expertly completed the capture and asked Whimsicott to help her. However, as soon as she finished the capture, her wrist was feeling sore.

She pushed on though. She and her befriended Pokémon were able to rush past some of the fires and see a raging Hydreigon blasting anything it could while looking as if it was searching for something.

Summer jumped off of Scolipede and pointed to Hydreigon to launch her disc.

The Dark Dragon glared and roared at the sight of the disc and turned angrily to Summer and her befriended Pokémon.

"Hydreigon! Please listen! Your child is safe, so please don't—!?"

All three heads gathered blue energy around their mouths.

Summer recognized it as a powerful Dragon Pulse attack. "Whimsicott!" She shouted as the fairy type jumped in front of her and the Scolipede.

The hydra released the epic energy, but it dissipated as it came closer to the small Pokémon.

Hydreigon snarled, before moving out of range of the Capture Disc.

Summer and her befriended Pokémon chased after the raging mother.

Hydregion launched a Dark Pulse… but not towards Summer. She seemed to change the frequency of her attack because when it blasted a nearby tree, it burst into flames.

Summer and her two Pokémon stopped at the odd sight, but then their eyes widened when they saw Hydreigon pick up the flaming tree, only wincing slightly, and throwing it towards them!

"Aah!" Summer yelped as she and the other two split.

The Tree crashed, causing the flames to spread around the forest. Summer covered her mouth and tried to look over the flames. She looked to her Capture Styler, but to her dismay, it showed that the two Pokémon had fled as the flames started reaching them.

"GRAH!"

Out of the flames, Hydreigon powered through, fire didn't hurt it as much as it did the other two Pokémon. She snarled at Summer, as if ready to bite her head off.

Summer realized things weren't looking good, but she noticed that Hydreigon was focused on her, which she could use to her advantage…

She had one shot at this.

The Hydreigon moved closer to her, Summer quickly threw her arm out—but winced as she pulled muscle.

Hydreigon took that chance and launched right after her.

Then they saw her smile. "Got you!" Summer called as out of the flames, the still functioning Capture Disc sped off and smacked the main head's eye.

Summer acted quickly and completed the capturing process the moment it flinched.

The light enveloped the mother, finally revealing to the mother her child was safe.

Summer sighed in relief briefly. "… I did it!" She relaxed for a moment, finally glad she did something right.

That was until she saw the fire suddenly sparking and heading quickly towards her.

"Get out of the way, nerd!"

Wes came out of nowhere and tackled Summer out of the flame's direction of where she would have been.

"Espeon, Umbreon now! Launch dirt into the fires!" Wes commanded.

Elsewhere, the two eons launched their most powerful attack into the ground in front of them. The Deino also launched its own Dark Pulse in tandem with their attacks. This caused a large explosion of dust and dirt to cover up the flames and suffocate them from their oxygen supply.

Wes covered Summer as the dust came their way, but Espeon simply managed a psychic barrier around the two from the dirt cloud.

After the dust settled, Wes turned to Summer. "Geez, I thought you law enforcers were supposed to be chasing after thieves like me, not the other way around."

"Well some thief you are," Summer automatically retorted before opening her eyes. "You couldn't even steal a common Patrat from a mute kid that stole and destroyed _your_ bike." She turned up to face him.

"Touché." Wes admitted with a smile. "I'm my defense; the mute has a mean left hook."

It was then they both realized that they were surprisingly close to each other's face.

"GET OFF ME!" Summer blushed before she pushed Wes off her.

"The second time I saved your butt, and no thank you? Seriously, are you really supposed to be the good guys?" Wes muttered as he dusted himself off.

"Dee!"

"Grah!"

The two looked over to see Hydreigon hugging her child in relief.

"If only Pokémon could ground their children. It's technically his fault this all happened." Wes complained.

"And who was it that invaded his home in the first place?"

"Woman, stop ruining my blaming party."

The two smiled.

Then they heard several pairs of feet running towards their direction.

"Whoa! A Hydreigon! They don't usually come around this area…"

Wes sighed as he saw the owner of the new voice and looked at him with a drained expression, especially when said person's eyes locked with his. "You have got to be kidding me."

"YOU!?" Black cried out before sending all three of his Pokémon out. His Munna looked especially ticked off at the Snagger. "What are you doing here!? You caused the Hydreigon to attack the forest didn't you!?"

"Sure, blame the Snagger why don't you? How judgemental…"

"Is sarcasm all you can respond with when you're talking to other people?" Summer leered.

"You try handling all this crap thrown at you."

Speaking of crap being thrown unfairly at one person…

Anto with Takezo and Ohko then followed after Black, slightly gasping for air. When he saw Black ready to attack Wes, he started to sweat.

"Anto!" Black called out. "It's the Team Snagem member! Help me stop him!"

Though Black was surprised that the only reaction he got out of the mute was a sheepish rub at the back of his head and a very nervous smile. Anto quickly wrote something down and showed it to Black.

"Umm, Black? **A lot** happened in the past few days."

* * *

[Later]

Black, just like Tracey, was surprised at the retelling of everything that happened after Anto won his first Badge. He was more surprised to hear about an Absol being spotted here as well because just like the Hydreigon and Deino, they were very far from where one would usually spot their kind.

Yes, he was skeptical of Wes, but Summer vouched for him and showed him that she was a Pokémon Ranger.

She even claimed that Wes was under her supervision and will be taken to custody as soon as he helped her with her case.

Wes and Anto raised a brow at that since this was the first time she's ever mentioned that. But with a declaration like that, they both figured that it might help take some political or rule stuff out of the way for Wes momentarily.

Summer then asked Anto what happened to Tracey. To which he, technically Black, explained that Tracey was helping douse the other fires started by Hydreigon while another person, Burgh the Gymleader of Castella City, (Anto was surpised to hear he was his future opponent.) was bringing the artifacts back to the museum. (Also this allowed Summer, Wes, and Black to compare notes about the thieves who called themselves Team Plasma.)

With everything settled down and with Tracey coming back and being told an even condensed version of all of the above, they all finally made their way out the forest.

"Dee!"

Then they all stopped and looked at the drooling Deino following them.

"NO!" Wes yelled. "This was somewhat your fault to begin with! Go back to your mothers!"

The Deino panted lightly.

Anto looked over to the Dark Dragons and was surprised to hear them say.

"**Mommy loves you!/Good Bye sweetie!/ They grow up so fast… especially in three days…**"

Anto wrote down something and caught Wes' attention. "Hey Wes, I think he wants to be your Pokémon."

"What makes you say that?" Wes looked at Anto doubtfully.

All Anto needed to do was point to the sky where Hydreigon was now flying away, happily waving goodbye.

"… Another Dark type huh? Oh well, at least your also a dragon type. Welcome aboard, Deino." Wes accepted the small Pokémon by petting him on the head.

He had some dobuts, but he wasn't going to really refuse a free dragon Pokémon. Maybe that nerd will finally stop pestering him so much.

"See? He's on the road to once more becoming a well civilized part of society! All part of my plan!" Summer exclaimed.

'_She's making this stuff as we go along…_" All the guys thought in their heads.

Anto sighed.

There was something he needed to do back home.

However, while everyone else were finally making their way back, Takezo and Ohko trailed behind a little slower than usual.

"**Yo, sword guy…**"

Takezo nodded. "**So you did sense it as well. We were being watched."**

"**Should we tell boss?**"

"**He seems… to be preparing for something. And the presence didn't feel malicious… we will tell him later.**"

[Back at Nacrene City…]

The first thing they did when they came back to the Pokémon Center was force Summer to bed. She had pushed herself once again and it was now going to take longer for her to heal her wounds.

A week at most even with medical treatment.

Anto didn't mind really. He thought maybe he could take the time to start training a bit with Ohko and Takezo. He asked for some battle tips from Wes surprisingly. To that, the Snagger agreed to help him for his upcoming gym battle, claiming just waiting around a bedridden Ranger was boring, especially when said Ranger claimed that he was under her supervision.

Also, Wes admitted he wanted to see his new Deino in battle. He didn't want anything slowing him down.

However, before Wes and Anto could begin their training, Anto walked up to Tracey.

"Tracey, can we talk?"

"Oh, sure Anto."

"Alone?"

Tracey took a minute to gather his thoughts before agreeing. They both went over to the cafeteria where there currently weren't that many people. They took a table at the far conversation before starting their little talk.

Anto sighed before writing something.

"Tracey, I'm sorry again for not telling any of you about Wes. But when he said something about a clue to my past, I didn't want to potentially lose my chance at that. I'm sorry for not considering you or the others when I made that decision; I was only thinking of myself." Anto finished sadly.

Tracey surprised Anto by shaking his head, causing confusion in the mute.

Tracey looked to Anto honestly. "Anto, look... I admit I was shocked that you did that… but then I thought about it in your shoes: if I had even a hint about my lost past, I probably would have taken it too. Sure it was potentially selfish and dangerous if Wes turned out to be a violent Criminal you just let loose… but he wasn't… he's actually surprisingly caring… especially since Summer told us about how he helped in returning the artifacts and saving her life…" Tracey admitted. "Also, if you never did that, who knows what would have happened to the three of us with that odd Absol? I didn't even know you caught a fighting Pokémon before you summoned him."

Anto smiled a little.

Tracey patted his shoulder and smiled. "I should also be apologizing, Anto. When I first met you, I thought you would be just like Ash and Pikachu since you and Takezo get along so much. But then I realized something: there's only one Ash and Pikachu. And there's only one of you and Takezo. I easily got frustrated when I felt you were hiding something from me, because I guess I subconsciously compared you to Ash, who was always so blunt and honest. I kept expecting traveling with you would be as fun as that time, and **that **was really selfish of me. So let's try this again. I'm going to help you with your memories, and if there's something bothering you, I'll wait patiently this time in case you decide to trust me."

Anto smiled and wrote down something. "Thank you Tracey. And yes, I would like trying this all over again with no more secrets."

"Good," He said as he stood up. "Now let's get some breakfast, I had to skip out on it when we found out Summer left, and it's already three in the afternoon." Tracey was about to go to the buffet, until Anto pulled his sleeve.

"Tracey, there's one more thing I need to tell you: I kept one more secret from you."

Anto sighed deeply before writing his next line.

"I actually have the ability to talk to Pokémon."

[Orre Region.]

Rui paled as she saw Ein's twisted smile. She wanted anyone to help her. Weakly, she hoped that her knight in shining armor would come…

A small beeping came from one of Ein's pockets. The scientist stopped briefly to take out a small device that glowed dimly around a circular screen. The scientist's brow raised and then he sighed. He turned to the two silver uniformed people beside him.

"Skrub, Kolda, take our guest into her new room."

Wordlessly, the two quickly made their way and scoped the girl off her feet despite the brightly red head's resistance.

"Err, Other Boss?" Folly started hesitantly. "What do we do now?"

"Go back to Mirror B," Ein shouted airily as he made his way back into his office.

There was barely any light in his main office, not that he essentially needed light due to some of his experiments pertaining to the darker elements. There was countless machines that surrounded his office, but looked nothing remotely resembling a computer nor any viable machine. Oddly, they looked more like giant mechanical coffins, and Ein would never disclose what the purpose of those machines to anyone, even his boss.

The head scientist of Cipher headed to his main computer. A blinking button was seen before he pressed it. "Lorvina? What is it? I was in the middle of something."

"Let me go you helmet freaks!" Rui cried out as she struggled against the two silver armored guardsmen. As much as she struggled, both of them barely seemed bothered by her attempts to escape. They were deceivingly strong.

They then came to an empty hallway that had a multitude of high tech laser cells. Rui glanced inside them, but saw most of them were empty save for some scratch marks and odd liquids that dried up on the floors.

She gritted her teeth, there had to be something she could do, but what? Kicking one of them in the shin?

"Rah!"

Thump.

…

"…"

Well that didn't work.

"… Uh… heheh?" Rui chuckled nervously.

She still felt the male glaring at through his weird helmet.

"Skrub, it would be wise to keep her at one piece. You know Boss Ein prefers his specimen 'fresh'." The female sighed unenthusiastically. "Besides, I know it didn't hurt."

"…" Wordlessly, the male—Skrub—as she called him, let go of one of the arms of Rui and started typing a number into an empty cell.

Rui contemplated trying to escape again, but before she could, she felt the taller woman lean in to her ear.

"Get ready."

Rui didn't get a chance to properly react. A ding noise was heard that signified the cell was open.

However, a flash of silver appeared before everything went to chaos.

The female, Kolda, just **kicked** Skrub into the cell meant for Rui.

"Gaf!" Skrub grunted as he slammed into the wall. Kolda acted quickly and pressed something odd on the pad next to the cell. A beeping sequence started.

"Kolda, what the—"

Fssshhhh!

Vents opened up within the cell and quickly filled the chamber with some kind of gas. Skrub slammed against the cell door, but it was completely futile as his pounding slowly stopped and he dropped to the floor after inhaling the knockout gas.

Kolda, seeing him out cold, grabbed Rui's arm. "We need to go now." She said hurriedly before dragging her down the hallway.

"W-what!? What's going on!?" Rui finally managed to ask.

A loud blare echoed throughout the entire lab. The lights all turned from clear white to dark red.

"Already?!" Kolda cursed under her breath. "Please hurry, the emergency elevator is around here!"

She ran up to an elevator and quickly pressed an up arrow, the elevator opened up with Kolda stepping in and offering her open palm to Rui.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help you, but we have to hurry!"

Rui hesitated, should she really trust her? But what other choice did she have? At least she must be somewhat true since she kicked her supposed partner into the cell meant for her.

Rui took her hand and went into the elevator.

"W-who are you?" She asked as the elevator swiftly made its way upward.

Kolda removed her helmet, revealing a beautiful woman with long, silky dark brown hair with chocolate colored eyes. She tossed her helmet into the floor and took out two spiked bracelets and placed it on both of her wrists.

"Sorry, I need a minute." She said as she started tying up her hair in a short pony tail. "This isn't my usual style, but it'll have to do for now…" She whispered softly to herself.

"W-why are you changing?" Rui asked another question, her head starting to ache at the odd amount of events happening to her.

"Just to be more comfortable," She answered as the elevator stopped and opened up. "We have to keep going—"

"H-hey! Trudly! The girl we kidnapped escaped!" A familiar blond haired grunt cried out.

"The heck!? That was the reason for this blasted alarm?!" Trudly screamed as he saw the two girls. "Folly, send out your Pokémon and capture her again!" He cried as He sent a Duskull and Spinarak while Folly sent a Whismur and a Lotad.

Rui yelped, but the older woman sent out two of her own Pokémon, a Combusken and Hitmonlee.

The two fighting types launched themselves at the four lesser Pokémon with speeds reaching closely to Mach 1. Trudly and Folly could not, nor were they competent enough to stop their opponent. The Combusken's fire attacks decimated the Duskull and Spinarak, while all the Hitmonlee needed to do was split kick mid-air to slam the Lotad and Whismur into separate walls in the hallway.

"No, my Pokémon!" Trudly yelled before angrily taking out another Poké Ball. "That's it! Go, Mak—"

Neither he, Folly, or Rui expected the older woman to kick Trudly hard into the stomach, before following up with a flurry of lightning fast kicks that rivaled her two fighting Pokémon's prowess. In an extravagant and flashy display of power she finished her combo with a spin and knocking Trudly into the ceiling.

"Trudly! You got your but handed to you by a girl!" Folly cried out to his unconscious friend before running up to him, and opening the pathway for Rui and her rescuer.

"Come on!" The fighter cried loudly, snapping Rui out of her stupor and running after the woman and her two fighting type Pokémon.

"We brought her here, so it's not our fault she got away!" Folly complained weakly.

The Combusken and Hitmonlee gathered energy before running ahead and attacking the wall in front of them.

In a burst of power, the wall shattered, letting out the dusty winds and showing that they were in some lab in the middle of a dessert.

The older woman took out some odd remote and pointed it out in strange direction before hitting a button.

*Beep, Beep!*

*Boom!*

Out of the sand, a motor bike burst out the ground. The lady recalled her two Pokémon and looked to Rui.

"Come on! If Ein comes, things will get much worse!" She yelled at Rui and grabbed her hand.

The sleek looking motor bike seemed to transform as the lady and Rui came closer to it. It extended longer, its two wheels flipped to their side, and their now bottom parts opened up to reveal some kind of anti gravity plates. The windshield tinted itself black and it seemed to show a see through GPS and navigation systems like a computer.

"**ROOOAAAARRR!**"

"Tch! So he sent _that_ after us." The older woman bit her tongue.

Rui looked back to see what had just made that powerful scream.

It was a Raikou, glaring fierce daggers at the two of them despite being a good distance away from them.

This Raikou, to her eyes, had a dark shadowy Arua around itself, just like that weirdo's Makuhita!

The woman got on the bike and helped Rui on. "Hurry!"

Raikou looked to be charging energy. Suddenly dark, ominous clouds appeared above the two females in the dessert skies. Electricity cackled in the skies, and only grew faster each passing second.

It was about to unleash a devastating Thunder attack.

"Oh no you don't!" The woman cried as she took out what looked to be another switch and pressed another button.

*BOOM!*

A piece of the lab started exploding then more explosions came after it.

The Raikou stopped charging and looked towards the lab—that was the woman needed to start up her bike and race off in incredible speeds.

"I admit, Raikou is every bit of legendary as the tales say. It's quite the shame Cipher has corrupted that noble Pokémon so…" The Lady said as she seemed to activate some new computer function on her bike. "How are you doing back there?"

"Seriously, what the heck happened!?" Rui cried as she held on to the woman. "And **who** are you!?"

The woman smiled and turned to her momentarily. "Call me Chun'li, an Agent from Interpol."

* * *

**{Author's notes}**

***Spits Water.* Pssh—what!? Chun'li?! From Street Fighter?!**

**It's not technically her. It's more of a Pokémon version of Chun'li from the famous fighting franchise.**

**Why did I include her? Why not? She's an Interpol agent in her respective universe isn't she? And in this story, Interpol agents will have a greater role. Plus I think she would fit in well as an Interpol agent in the Pokémon universe when I imagine her with Looker doing some cool spy-like mission. (After all, she pretty much works with a girl that shows her two butt cheeks almost the entire time, so she would be used to weird by now.)**

**I think story wise this can really help me branch out more. But I promise that she will be the only cameo/character from her universe unless I choose to put cameo versions of Ryu as a martial artist, but not part of the main plot. I promise you it's just her.**

**A lot more things have happened in this chapter. **

**Basically…**

**-Wes and Summer Social Link up one level!**

**-Anto admits the truth to Tracey!**

**-Summer is grounded!**

**-Wes gets a new Pokémon!**

**-Takezo and Ohko sense an ambiguous presence!**

**-other stuff!**

**-Training montage before badge number two! (luckily for you people, that will be only the first part of next chapter before Anto takes on the second gym.)**

**I have more things planned for the training part. Can't wait for it.**

**Thank you for reading, and I really appreciate those reviews.**

* * *

-] Omake = Watcher, Painter, and Amnesiac.

Burgh: *Looking over Tracey's art book* This is absolutely magnificent! The pencil work, the shadings, the way you capture the movements… absolutely beautiful! You have talent Mr. Sketchit!

Tracey: Aww shucks, thank you Burgh. But it's nothing really, all I do is draw Pokémon in the wild.

Burgh: Augh! How envious! All you need to do is walk and you can find such beautiful pieces of works in front of you! Alas, I get grief stricken with artist's block more often than I'd like! *Notices another note book.* Oh, what amazing artwork do you keep in this note book?

Tracey: *Eyes widen.* W-wait, Burgh!

Burgh: Wha—!? This is… horrible! What is this? It's like you gave a Roggnerola a pencil and had the poor creature bang its face on it several times! Is this a Pidove… with eight beaks?!

Tracey: I thought it was five—wait, Burgh that's not mine!

Burgh: Of course it's not, only an uneducated simpleton would dare write such atrocity and call it art!

Tracey: *Looks at something else beyond Burgh.* … What about an Amnesiac?

Burgh: … *Looks behind him to see a very unamused Anto.* Err… I'm sure they tried?

*Anto grabs the note pad back and walks out. The instant he does, loud sounds of battling are heard throughout.*

Wes: *His Panic cries are heard from here* WHAT THE HECK!? WHERE DID YOU GAIN THIS BLOOD LUST!? CALM DOWN ANTO! **HOLY CE**—

*The ground shakes*

Tracey: … You… really fired up his training…

Burgh: … I-I think it's time I get back to my gym…


	10. Ep 10: Powerful Accidents

Episode 10: Bringing 'Mind' to 'Matter'.

"_There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet._"

_-__Stephen Hawking_

* * *

The two trainers stared down each other. The wind blew calmly as their Pokémon readied themselves to do battle.

"I really can't believe that you have the ability to talk to other Pokémon…" Wes muttered as he tried to wrap his head around the secret that Anto had explained to him. He certainly wasn't expecting such a claim after Summer was 'grounded' by Nurse Joy into staying in the hospital. Yet here he was now, having a practice battle with the mute with the ability to mentally speak with Pokémon somehow.

… Life really was simpler back as a thief in Orre.

Wes sighed before he called out the first move.

"Umbreon, Bite!" The dark type ran off, getting closer to the small normal type.

Anto smiled, getting ready for a plan. "_Hold up Takezo… use Detect!_"

What was supposed to be a simple training battle, turned into something more…

It all started with a Pokémon Move that worked a little differently than it was supposed to be.

"Huh? What the—"

"_Takezo?! What's with your eyes!?"_

What makes stories so impossibly amazing… is when they combine the most impossible and unthinkable things…

And label them as accidents.

[One week later.]

Four blurs, each in different colors: brown, blue, pink, and black.

They clashed, repelled, and collided with each other.

Ohko, the blue blur, spun in the air, aiming his legs right for the black blur, Umbreon.

"Espeon, Reflect!"

A psychic wall appeared to intercept the fervid axe kick from descending on the dark type. While it did stop the attack, the wall actually bent from the impact.

"Now Espeon, use Psybeam on Ohko!"

Espeon fired a concentrated beam of psychic energy at the susceptible Sawk. However, with fierce speed, Takezo, the brown blur, ran from behind Ohko and jumped on the psychic shield before bouncing off from it and grabbing Ohko to move him out of the beam's path.

"Tch! Seriously that Patrat has some amazing speed to him… Umbreon, Secret Power on Takezo! Lock him down!"

The black Pokémon complied by accessing the powers of its surroundings of the forest. A vine whip appeared and launched itself towards Takezo's legs.

However, a blue hand caught the vine and stopped it from reaching its target.

"Now! Psybeam again!"

This time the beam was aimed to go faster and both the Patrat and Sawk were too close to each other to avoid the attack.

But it looked like they didn't need to.

Ohko smiled and pulled hard on the vine he caught, causing Umbreon to fly from his spot. The fighting type whipped the dark type towards the psychic beam, canceling is kinetic power.

Wes was annoyed that he used his own typing against him for what felt to be the umpteenth time this week, but he had to give credit where it was due: he was the very first trainer to abuse his opponent's advantages. He definitely would keep this tactic for himself if the need arose.

Espeon ran up to his brother, both of them facing down the other duo, ready to charge once more.

Wes sighed and rose out his hand. "Alright, I think that's enough for now."

{Wes P.O.V.}

Celebi, it's getting really hard to battle him these past few weeks. He already abused the fact Espeon and Umbreon's typing could work against each other, but now he has two Pokémon abusing that fact. If I didn't rotate Deino every now and then all of these practice matches would really suck in my favor.

Anto still seemed energetic. "Wait! What about practicing that new Fusion Move?"

Ugh, those words. Just thinking about it gave me a head ache. How exactly did we discover that?

Oh right, it was during the second day when Takezo learned a new move. Since he already knew four, he was going to forget an old one or the new move itself…

But Anto seemed to find a strange loophole to that rule.

By all means what he just did was impossible, if it wasn't for his claim about being able to talk to Pokémon telepathically—something I refuse to believe, but I can't refute because it makes too much freaking sense.

Anyway, he called the strange loop hole, 'Fusion Move' which has some charm to it and could really shake the foundations of battling if he was actually able to pull it off.

I should probably clarify how this all happened again.

Takezo learned Hypnosis during a fight against Umbreon. But the thing was he was trying to use Detect that moment because Umbreon was going to use Bite on him.

The conflict appeared in his eyes. Where Pokémon usually use Hypnosis, they would have their eyes glow red (or pink), but when Pokémon use Detect, their eyes would glow blue.

Takezo's eyes glowed both colors: his left eye glowed red while his right eye glowed blue.

The effects of the combined move was also amazing, not only did Takezo expertly dodge the attack, but Umbreon fell asleep after missing his attack.

It was an accident but Anto and Takezo seemed to somehow… remember that feeling…

Yeah it sounds like a lot of Tarous, but considering what's been happening ever since I came to Unova, I can't really refute that…

Again that goes back to his weird ability to talk to Pokémon and understand them. The way he seems to communicate, at least in his word—writings, is that he seems to connect to Pokémon on a 'feeling than actual language'.

It's confusing to say the least, but then he tried it in these terms: 'Instead of a Pokémon trying to forget one move, how about them trying to combine moves together? That way, no move needs to be forgotten and it gives existing moves new powers!'

I know Anto is an amnesiac and all, and I am in no way a Pokémon professor, but I am sure that things can't be as easy as he makes it sound. He probably making actual Pokémon physicists cringe at his ignorance, but is actually making them drop their jaws to the floor when he was able to convince Ohko to use dragonic energy from his Dual Chop attack into his Double Kick move.

Another plus side was that even if some moves were combined, the Pokémon could still use normal moves. Like how Takezo could still use a normal Detect without the Hypnosis bonus. But he couldn't use Hypnosis normally since he never learned it properly. This kind of meant if he wanted to use Hypnosis, he had to use it as well as Detect.

Still this type of power had amazing possibilities as a trump card in future battles, and could help in getting into the league.

I also happen to remember how he unlocked this 'technique' for Ohko in the first place.

"I just told Ohko, 'Hey remember that feeling you do when you do Dual Chop? Try to do that same thing the same time as Double Kick.'"

… And it **worked**.

Professors, eat your hearts out…

Though I have to admit that was a pretty cool move, seeing the blue-ish dragon energy form fangs around the fighting Pokémon's feet.

Still the kid is defying the rules of Pokémon battling… I gotta admit that's pretty cool… I can definitely get behind causing some 'legal' controversy that doesn't involve me getting arrested or wanted.

Can't wait to see what kind of tables are going to get flipped when people start seeing that.

But yeah there are some huge setbacks to this. First of all, conflicting or parallel types tend to cancel or make both moves harder to use. What I mean was that Takezo seemed to have a harder time pulling off the Hypnosis and Detect than Ohko did with his Dual Chop and Double Kick. Since the typing of Detect and Hypnosis don't match well, while dragon and fighting are just neutral.

Which meant the rules of physics weren't completely set to let Anto screw all of it. Can't let those Swinub start flying, now can we?

And one major drawback was that once two moves combined, they couldn't undo it. Anto thought trying to combine Swords Dance and Detect but it completely backfired. When the Pokémon would try to combine moves that weren't already 'fused', the energies would cancel each other out…

Violently.

Takezo surged with psychic energy glowing brightly from his eyes when he tried to interchange the moves with each other.

Thankfully, it stopped just as fast and we figured out that we could only fuse two moves, at least for now.

Another drawback where the amount of uses they could even try. Takezo seemed capped at only using Hypnosis/Detect only three times. While Ohko struggled using his combined move, Dual Chop/Double Kick more than twice.

As for me… it looked as if Anto could help my Pokémon learn it too. No surprise, Deino seemed to master combining moves on the fly, being a new born and easily able to adapt to combining its moves together. (Wow, dark and dragon type moves combined is some insane firepower.)

So, after recalling all of the benefits, risks and history…

"Alright, we'll try this stuff again. So? Which ones do you want to use? Or do you want to try a new combo or something?"

Anto looked over to Takezo to which the Pokémon started speaking after what seemed to be a glance.

I briefly wondered if Anto could actually 'talk' faster to other Pokémon than others. I mean with the way he just thinks: his Pokémon could hear his thoughts, and since thoughts can sometimes be faster than actual oral words, did that mean that Anto could command and react with his Pokémon faster than even some of the best Pokémon trainers?

"Wes, please get Deino out. Takezo wants to try something."

I took out the Poké Ball and tossed it to summon the pseudo legendary. Yet, I can't help but wonder how this thing, as peppy as a Poocheyena, will turn into something like that Hydreigon.

"Ready?" Takezo stepped forward and wielded one of his wooden blades. Nothing needed to be said but this, "Deino, use Earth Power!"

The small creature roared as the earth beneath Takezo shook violently. Takezo jumped high into the air before the ground beneath him could collapse under him.

"Now! Use Dragon's Wrath!" Basically it's what I called the fusion move of Dark Pulse and Dragon Pulse. Deino opened its mouth with a small orb of blue, dragonic energy before it suddenly being enveloped by black shadows and blasting off in the shape of a huge dark dragon head, ready to swallow its target.

Whenever I see that combined move, I can only imagine how powerful it would be once it's refined and when Deino is fully evolved.

Still, Takezo already knew about this attack, and took a swords stance with the blade above his waist. His palms also glowed with darkness and dark type energy quickly flowed into his wooden blade.

Takezo charged towards the attack, but his sword was now as black as coal. In a large arcing, horizontal slash, Takezo unleashed the dark energy as his sword made impact with one of the dark dragon's fangs.

Oh wait—

*Boom!*

…

…

I dusted myself off and coughed a few times. I forgot the amount of energy behind combining two attacks were usually stronger and more destructive.

"Anto, you alright?" I managed to say between coughs. The mute seemed fine besides the silent coughing.

After the dust settled a bit, we found out all our Pokémon were fine, and we needed a bath.

Today was our last day of training before the Nerd would be released from her charge. Being forced to stay bed ridden on a week, ironically, made her more stressed.

It was something about… not being able to call HQ in a week?

That explains why her Capture Styler kept making that weird noise throughout the week. Dang thing wouldn't let me sleep until I disabled that function. (Yeah, I convinced Nerd to let me repair the Capture Styler while she was healing.)

And then she tried to choke me when I told her that. Seriously that girl is trouble. If Anto and Headband hadn't pinned her down she probably would have had to have been staying in bed longer.

Though I have to admit, it's insanely fun messing with her. She makes it too easy.

"Well, how about we go get breakfast at the cafeteria now?" I offered before recalling my three Pokémon.

It was then I noticed Anto pointing to the nearby power pole that seemed busted. Then I noticed the other busted power generators around the vicinity of our little ground zero.

Maybe we shouldn't have decided to train so close to the Pokémon Center this time…

[Later…]

"_Summer!? Where have you been!? We've been worried sick about you!"_

"_Pichu!"_

"_Where's Jack and Kieth!?"_

"_Who are those three guys beside you? And why does the silver haired kid look familiar?_"

Wow… these bagels are really good...

Oh and those are a lot of Rangers.

"Err… it's kind of hard to explain…"

"_Get off me! It's crowded enough as is! Erhm! Summer, why are you using a public Pokémon Center Video Phone and not your long range communicator on your Capture Styler?_"

Because I disabled it.

Summer seemed to sneak in a leer at me before looking back at the old man. "Sorry Professor Hastings, it was damaged! I'm having a mechanic work on it right away! Though, he's taking his sweet time…"

Hey, not my fault having new firepower under my belt interests me over fixing someone else' broken gear.

"Err, Summer?" Tracey came up with a nervous laughter before pointing to the line waiting behind his. "I think you should hurry up?"

Right some of the public video phones short circuited for 'some unexplainable reason'. Nurse Joy believes some kind of dark type Pokémon must have messed with one of the generators, but too many people here have dark Pokémon or Pokémon with dark type moves so it was sort of hard to figure out who could have done such a thing.

It's a shame no one could figure out why or how this happened. Yep. No one.

Anto, stop looking at me like that, you'll give us away.

"Umm, right. Sorry Professor, I can't brief anyone about my status right now due to unforeseen circumstances, but I promise to give you all a detailed accounting… as soon as my Capture Styler is fixed!" She waved goodbye and hit the button before anyone else could say something.

Nerd, slumped into her chair with a loud groan. "Oh what am I going to do?"

I swallowed. "I suggest getting off that chair and letting the other people make their calls for starters." Seriously, why is food so good everywhere but Orre?

Summer scowled at me before getting off the seat. We let the next person up to the video phone before our little group made our way to the buffet.

"Seriously, Wes, I need that Capture Styler fixed soon!" Summer demanded of me as we all sat down on a dinning booth.

"I keep telling you: Capture Styler equipment is mostly custom made in your Ranger Union. Even finding substitute or momentary parts will be hard to find here in Unova. Not to mention the place that could even sell _those_ parts would be in more metropolitan cities than this one. I'd have a better chance going over the computer stores in Castella City than here." I answered. I honestly have no reason to lie or joke to anyone, even Team Snagem Grunts, when it comes to machines. If one those idiots messed up, **I** have to clean things up for them.

She sighed again. "Alright that's it. I need some bagels too. Anto, where are they?"

Mute pointed over to the buffet before Summer went out.

Anto seemed to scribble something down before showing it to us. "Actually, I think she's taking this all better than I thought."

"Yep."

Headband started to say something. "I still find it strange that you would help Summer so willingly… considering your…"

How subtle. "I wonder how many times I have to keep telling you that I quit?" I don't like thinking about why though. Better change the topic. "Anto, you're finally going to challenge the Narcrene Gym, you were able to scout some of Lenora's battles right? To study and counter?"

He nodded his head before he simply stared at something beyond me.

… That's a lot of blueberry bagels.

"That's a lot of blueberry bagels…" Dang it, Headband.

"The other foods are temporarily out due to the power outage, and I need to stuff myself right now." You came out of resting on a bed for one straight week, how is that tiring?

I spotted Anto freely taking a bagel and eating it without getting an earful from the Ranger. What the heck? When I ask for it, it's wrong, but when he does it, its fine? … Wait, he can't really ask…

Sometimes I wish was a mute amnesiac if that was how easy-going life could be.

[Nacrene Gym]

{3RD Person P.O.V.}

The Nacrene Gym has also doubled up as a Museum and Library, and has been one of the great prides of the small city. The Gym Leader Lenora was always fascinated with bones, ever since her father had brought them back from mining. She would always have this fervor in curiosity where she would ask countless questions about where the bone came from, what it was a part of originally, how old it was, and so on and so forth.

Her passion had always driven her to continue learning, but it was with her love of Pokémon that made her want to share this passion to learn to whoever she could teach. While being a teacher or professor did seem to have some merits, nothing could compare to the lessons she always seemed to learn from battling. The excitement, the action, the strategy, the epic wins, and the bitter losses… all of her battles were far more memorable than her time sitting around in a classroom. So along with being an archeologist, what better way to teach people about her passions than being a Gym leader?

Anto stared down the surprisingly huge stack of books the gym offered. He was currently taking the Gym challenge and had to solve specific puzzles in order to meet with Lenora.

He was given the hint to look for a book called 'Pokémon, Nice To Meet You!" by Hawes, the museum assistant director and husband of Lenora, a rather mild mannered man.

Anto briefly wondered how those two actually met considering their personalities, but he had to focus at the task at hand.

While he had to look for clues, he also had to be careful of the people around the gym. Lenora's students, volunteers, employees, or whatever connection they had with her and Hawes, would have to challenge Anto if he came up to them whether or not they had the right clue into leading to Lenora's secret room.

Anto let out Takezo out of his Poké Ball and let the small samurai climb up his shoulders. If he could, he'd rather not let Ohko fight out here and damage anything expensive looking.

As he made his way towards the first hint, Wes, Summer, and Tracey all watched with Hawes back at the museum lobby. They were watching Anto on a large screen that would change whenever Anto would walk out of range in a camera.

Summer turned to the Assistant Director. "Hawes, I want to ask: Gym trainers will also fight against Anto as he progresses through the gym? But everything looks expensive in there. Is it a good idea to have Pokémon battles there at all?"

"Ahh," Hawes started, fixing his glasses. "Don't worry about that. The Pokémon League was kind enough to help fund the reinforcement of the material there. All of the bookshelves in the library are designed to be fire proof and can withstand the power of a Gigalith using Giga Impact. We've had many battles there before, and Lenora always enjoys a little excitement in learning new things."

Wes looked back to the screen where Anto was having to battle with one of the Gym Trainers. It amused Wes to see Takezo versus another Patrat. However, despite being the same Pokémon, one glance at Takezo told anyone that he was leagues ahead of the normal counterpart. The unarmed Patrat attempted to use Tackle on the swordmaster, only for Takezo to respond by simply punching the other Patrat in the face, stopping his momentum and forcing a Knockout.

Hawes gapped at the sight of that. "… That… is one healthy Patrat…" He fixed his loose glasses.

The other three suppressed a laugh, but smiled wide. He had no idea…

Meanwhile, Lenora also watched with intrigue as she watched the bladed Patrat one-shot his lesser counterpart. She looked over to her Watchog, staring intently at the small Pokémon in the screen and smiled.

It looked like she was going to have another exciting battle this week.

[Later…]

Despite going through several more trainers and their Pokémon, Takezo only seemed be warmed up as he winded his arms around.

"_Show off._" Anto commented as he found the button to Lenora's lair.

"**Compared to the Absol, Espeon, Umbreon, Scyther, Crustle, and Ohko, the Pokémon here lack their battle experience and presence.**" Takezo responded.

Anto clicked on the button, allowing a shelf nearby to move and reveal a secret stair case.

"**Besides, they were but a warm up for the true fight ahead.**" Takezo called out before climbing up to Anto's shoulder.

Both Anto and Takezo made their way down stairs where Lenora was waiting for them excitedly in the large arena.

"Welcome! The director of the Nacrene Museum and the Nacrene Gym's Leader is me! Lenora! Well then, challenger, I'm going to research how you battle with the Pokémon you've so lovingly raised!" Lenora heartily called out. "This will be a two on two singles battle. Fight until both Pokémon are knocked out. Agree?"

Anto nodded.

Lenora smiled, took out her Poké Ball, and summoned a large, fluffy dog creature. "Come on, Stoutland!"

"**Come and have a piece o' me, ya Whipershnappers!**" The large dog barked.

Anto looked to Takezo. "_Sorry, Takezo, he's a little out of your weight class. I'm sending Ohko in first._"

Takezo simply nodded and jumped off Anto's shoulder before being recalled into his Poké Ball. Anto grabbed the Great Ball and summoned Ohko out from his container.

"**Yo! What's up Side Burns dude?**"

"**Ya be makin fun of me stache, ain't cha laddie? Oooh, ya in for it now!**"

"**Of course we are, we're in a building, yo!**"

"… **Oi, don't tell me ya a few stones shy of a well now, laddie?**"

"**What do wells have anythin to do with dis? Of course I feel OK! And since when did feelin well got somethin to do about rocks?**"

Anto resisted the urge to facepalm. He noted he and Takezo might have to do some crash course in basic objects with Ohko after this.

"It seems like our Pokémon are quite fired up!" Lenora called out heartily. "Let's start things off! Stoutland, Takedown!"

"_Dodging isn't really your style, especially not in this case! Meet him head on with Double Kick!_"

Ohko slid and shifted quickly into a stance. He raised his leg and jumped into a powerful side kick to meet with Stoutland.

The two collided in a powerful shockwave that blew up to the corners of the room. Both Pokémon staggered back, yet it was obvious that Stoutland was the loser of that exchange due to the fact he was hit by a supper effective move that was increased due to same typing and the fact Take Down had recoil damage.

Ohko's cloak fluttered madly but still didn't come off. However, Lenora was able to notice what was beneath the clothing.

"Is… that a one armed Sawk?" She asked slightly shocked. "I might have had some reservations about fighting a handicapped Pokémon, but after that exchange that would be an insult to you, your Pokémon, to Stoutland, and to me! Ha! A handicapped Pokémon overpowering my Stoutland? You are a very interesting Challenger with very interesting Pokémon! It appears I have to take this very seriously. Stoutalnd, Roar!"

"_Crap._"

The husky Pokémon performed the loud move, forcing Ohko back into his Great Ball and dragging out a bewildered Takezo out into the field.

"**Hmm?!**" Takezo quickly drew out one of his wooden blades.

Lenora quickly recalled Stoutland before throwing out another Poké Ball. "Go Watchog!"

The evolved Pokémon stood proudly in front of his pre evolved species.

Anto quickly grabbed Takezo's container to switch him out.

"Oh no, Watchog, use Mean Look!"

The large Pokémon flashed a dark light summoning an illusionary wall of dark eyes staring evilly at Takezo. When Anto tried to recall him back, the return laser did was stopped by a dark eye.

"**There, now I can have my match with you.**"

Takezo leered at his opponent. Anto quickly noted that Takezo seemed off for some reason. "**You are my opponent?**"

"**Indeed. I look forward to this. It's not every day you find someone seemingly stronger than you were when you were their level. Still, I'm stronger than you right now, so that's all that matters.**"

"**Perhaps…**" Takezo wielded his blade ready.

"_Takezo, is something wrong?_"

"… **I do not have the best past with Watchogs. Please focus on the fight at hand.**"

Lenora seemed deep at thought as she watched today's challenger. "By the way, I remember you making an appointment earlier this week, but you said that your name was Anto, correct?"

He nodded and wondered what this was all about.

"I was wondering why you haven't introduced yourself after I had. It's quite rude to keep someone waiting."

Anto rubbed the back of his head before he made a few hand motions with his arms.

Meanwhile, Tracey, Summer, and Wes smiled at the reaction Hawes was giving. His eyes were widened as he recognized those hand motions. They were hand gestures for mute people.

"He said, 'I'm sorry, but I can't speak.'." Summer translated.

Over the past week while Summer was recovering, Anto had learned sign language and hand gestures over the internet. He would spend time with Summer in trying to learn it to pass the time away in her resting. Summer then roped in Wes and Tracey along with her after the first combined lesson. While it had been just a week, Anto passionately learned the signs and hand gestures over nights memorizing the motions. He now knew most of the basics, but by now he could have a 'normal' conversation with the others who have also learned to pick up his signs. (This was also around the time Tracey and Anto decided to tell Summer and Wes about his ability to talk to Pokémon.)

Lenora's eyes also widened, "You can't talk? But how are your Pokémon…" The entire picture just hit her and she couldn't resist the urge to laugh. "A sword wielding Patrat, a one-armed Sawk, and now a mute trainer? You keep getting more mysterious by the minute! Watchog, Confuse Ray!"

The larger Pokémon launched beams of light towards Takezo, but the speedy Pokémon dodged the beams by cart wheeling to the side.

"Now, use Low Kick!" Watchog raced toward the pre-evolved Pokémon, launching a sweeping kick as he got in range. Takezo simply jumped high and swung his entire body to hit Watchdog with a clean Cut. Watchdog staggered back, clutching his chest from the pain of the surprisingly powerful attack.

"Alright, close range is a no go. Thunderbolt!" Lenora cried.

Watchog complied and unleashed a powerful surge of electricity towards Takezo who barely avoided the attack.

"_Close in! You're a sitting duck at that range!_"

Takezo rushed for Watchog; however, Watchdog was more than capable of keeping up or keeping away from Takezo's speed.

"All we have to do is keep away from your Pokémon's close quarters and blast away with our range! Keep it up, Watchog!"

Anto gritted his teeth. He didn't exactly have a plan to properly counter long range speedsters yet. He seemed to have this problem a lot since both of his Pokémon were physical attackers. This fight was starting to turn like the practice fight with Takezo V.S. Brav before he won his first badge.

Actually, now that Anto thought about it, most of Takezo's battles always involved the opponents trying to shut down Takezo's close combat range: Cilian used Rock Slide, Harold and Pachi were surprisingly skilled despite their first impression, Wes had Espeon lock down Takezo completely with Confusion, and now Lenora was using Watchdog's speed and long range to eventually catch Takezo.

It was similar to the Pachi and Harold fight, but Anto didn't want to risk that maneuver at a sharper opponent such as Lenora. Still, if anything, there was always something in a fight he could exploit. He just had to keep looking for it while Takezo raced past the lightning bolts.

… Hopefully, he could find it fast. He really didn't want Ohko facing a Watchog that could easily keep out of Takezo's range, let alone Ohko's.

"_Come on! Think! Watchdog is keeping away from Takezo by blasting him with a Thunderbolt every time he either tries to get close, or when he has a clear shot… I really don't want Takezo to use that distraction method again if Lenora sees through it. The risk would be too high just to score a regular hit that Watchdog might recover from. There has to be some other thing I can exploit…_"

While he was thinking it over, Watchhog launched another blast of electricity towards Takezo, but this time, the samurai waited a little longer before dodging and rushing straight for the bigger normal type.

Lenora smiled as she saw the little Pokémon come closer. "Now Watchog, use your Illuminate ability!"

Watchog's body flashed with blinding light in one second. Forcing, Anto to look away, but not for Takezo.

"**Yaah!**"

"_Oh, Celebi!_" Anto paled after the light flashed down. Takezo had dropped his blade and was staggering around while covering his eyes with his hands.

"All Patrats have sharp eyes. However, sharp senses can also be used against an opponent. I remember my Watchog as a Patrat having that same problem when I would work with lens flares," Lenora admitted before smiling at Anto. "I don't want to risk a fight too long with your speedy Pokémon, so taking away it's sight should finish it off! Watchdog, Thunderbolt, full power!"

"_Takezo it's coming straight for you, make a hard left!_"

Takezo, while stilling holding his eyes, jumped away as hard as he could to avoid the blast, barely missing it. However, without his sight, he flopped to the ground instead of landing on his feet.

"It-it looks like Anto might not win this…" Summer noted sadly as she saw the conditions of the fight.

"I have to admit so too, Takezo is blinded, and if he gets knocked out, I doubt Ohko could handle fighting against two Pokémon like that, even with a type advantage." Tracey agreed while being a little disheartened.

Wes stared hard at the battle. "Hmm… there still might be a chance…"

The two turned to him. Summer was surprised. "Huh?! How can he win this!?"

Wes pointed to the screen. "Did you not notice the look on Lenora's face right now?"

Anto was surpised to see Lenora's confused look.

"Alright, I knew you were mute, so I figured you must have had some kind of sight or signals that you were showing your Pokémon to command them… but even when your Patrat was blinded, he still knew how to dodge that last attack… how in the world did you do that?" Lenora asked curiously.

All Anto could do was give a nervous shrug. The time she took asking allowed Takezo to stand back up and remove his hands, but his eyes were still closed. Mean Look was still in play, so still no switching out until Takezo was knocked out.

"**Where is my sword?**" Takezo asked.

"**I commend your tenacity, but it is over. Well fought young one.**"

"Oh right, Watchog, Thunderbolt!"

Anto didn't have the heart to call out Takezo to dodge this one. There was just no way he could dodge the next one being so exhausted and blinded.

Unfortunately maybe he should have tried because a direct hit from that Thunderbolt looked painful to watch.

Takezo fell and Anto's heart sank.

But he still wasn't out of this yet.

Never give up until the last Pokémon drops!

Anto threw Ohko out.

"**Alright that was cheap! Come on out here, Side Burns, so I can whoop your butt all over this grass!**"

"_We're on a dirt ground, Ohko._"

"**Even better! Now it won't be comfortable when I drag you through it!**"

Was it too late to surrender? Wait, he was mute, and he still didn't know the hand signals for 'surrender'. … Dang it…

"Now this Pokémon isn't as quick, Watchog, Thunderbolt!"

Unfortunately, she was right as Ohko was shocked by the quick blast of electricity.

Anto's mind raced. He was at an even worse position than before! He should have tried the technique with Takezo afterall. Ugh, Anto was filling up with regret—wait. Maybe it wasn't too late to do it… at least differently…

Back at the spectator's lounge, other museum guests had gathered over the course of the fight and were watching the main screen behind Hawes and the other three.

Most of them were already saying things like, "Oh man, I missed watching a gym fight." or "Man poor kid, he's getting owned." Even "Mommy, I'm bored, I wanna see the dragon skeleton again!"

However, Wes looked at the sudden change in expression at Anto's face. '_Huh, I wonder what you saw Anto…_'

"Thunderbolt!" Lenora cried again to which her Pokémon gladly complied.

"_Ohko, right there! Jump for it as hard as you can!_"

"**Huh? … Hunh!?**" Ohko said, but did what he was told especially when he saw what he was referring to.

Ohko jumped and avoided a rather powerful Thunderbolt. It looked like Watchog had switched his style of fighting. The Thunderbolts for Takezo were very fast, but didn't have the same power they did right now. Since Watchdog was now aiming for a slower target, he could focus more on the power rather than the accuracy of the move.

Thankfully, this slight difference might have caused them the match.

Ohko landed on the ground with a roll. He stopped on one knee down and having his back face away from Watchdog.

"Keep up the Thunderbolts, Watchog!"

The Pokémon complied and quickly charged up for another Thunderbolt.

Anto's eyes widened. Now or never!

"_Now! Throw it hard!_"

Ohko stood up fast, rising forward and releasing his hand from beneath his cloak… with Takezo's sword!

"Huh?!" Lenora stared at the small wooden blade at the fighting type's hand.

With a large arching swing, Ohko threw the blade like a baseball, going fast at amazing speeds towards Watchog.

Watchog was still in the middle of a Thunderbolt attack, and launched the attack to somehow prevent it from reaching him. Too bad he forgot that it was wood and electricity did nothing to even lessen the force of the blade from making contact and slamming hard into his chest.

"_Hurry! Double Kick!_"

Ohko pretty much burst from where he was and began his first kick in a rising motion that launched Watchog into the air. Ohko knelt and jumped high, spinning as he did to gain momentum for his second kick—an Axe Kick right as he was just a little above Watchog.

Fighting type move from fighting type Pokémon plus gravity equals owwie and boom.

Big boom.

The actual museum shook a little when Watchog slammed into the ground, causing all of the museum attendees to glue their eyes on the screen, silencing the naysayers and the doubtful as they saw the Challenger actually stand a chance.

Meanwhile, Wes smiled cockily. "Show off…"

As the dust cloud settled, Lenora smiled wide but was a little sad to her Watchog knocked out.

"Using your previous Pokémon's tool as a throwing weapon to hit Watchog from afar? Hahaha! I have never had a battle like this before where items from a previous Pokémon help the next Pokémon! Very well done in even using that!" Lenora applauded Anto before pulling out her second Pokémon. "But it's not over yet! Stoutland, go!"

"**Oh? Ya think ya can last against me laddie?** **Even though ya couldn't handle a little sneeze?**"

"**Sneeze, nah bro, you definitely roared.** **I even remember that stinky breath that came out before I found myself back in the Big Sphere.**"

"_You call the Poké Balls the Big Sphere?_" Anto wondered if that was the Pokémon equivalent of the Big House or the Slammer.

"**Looks like I got to be the one showin ya some manners laddie!**"

"**Yea, by the way, what's a laddie?**"

Anto once more reminded himself to have a talk with Ohko later on.

"Go, use Ice Fang!" Lenora commanded.

Stoutland's mouth started to turn a light blue color with fog of warm air now being seen coming out of his mouth. He rushed for Ohko with amazing speeds, but Ohko replied to the attack with another Double Kick.

Ohko stepped forward with his left foot, but then spun on that ankle, allowing him to have an easier time motioning his entire body to perform a roundhouse kick to knock Stoutland's head on the left side. Stoutland teetered away from the blow.

The Ice Fang Attack was cancelled after the first kick made impact, but Ohko followed it up with a flying kick right for the body of Stoutland.

Stoutland slid from the impact, but held on tight. After he caught himself, he still stood tall, growling madly at Ohko.

"It's going to take more than that to stop, Stoutland!" Lenora called out before showing a coy smile. "Stoutland, Roar again!"

"_Huh?_"

Stoutland complied and did what he was told. However, despite confusing everyone momentarily, nothing happened.

"**That won't work on me a second time pops!**"

"**Who are ya callin, 'pops'!? I'm Twenty Seven, ya bloke!**"

Anto felt confused, but that was something bothering him at the back of his head. He learned something from watching one of the videos of Lenora battling before. But what was it?

"Stoutland, Takedown!"

Once more Stoutland charged, but this time, Ohko jumped over Stoutland and brought his hand out. A deep, purple-ish blue glowed in his hands mid air. "**Dual Chop!**" Ohko launched a the first punch that smacked Stoutland's head down before he landed. Following up his chain, Ohko ran back into the front of Stoutland and used the second attack as an uppercut on the downed Stoutland.

Ohko jumped back from the attack in case there was any retaliation.

"**Dang Side Burn, you're tough.**" Ohko said shaking his hands slightly.

"**And ya hit like a wee school boy… ha! Take it as a compliment, laddie. The others couldn't hit water if they fell of a boat!**"

It was then Anto remembered what was bothering him so much about that Roar attack. He remembered Black's fight among one of the videos he's watched. It was Stoutland's trump card.

Lenora seemed to notice the look on Anto's face turn from confusion, to realization. "Oh? Did you figure it out? Well too late! Stoutland, Last Resort! Full Power!"

"_Ohko! Watchog broke your Sturdy ability, we can't risk a Reversal, so let's go with your Trump Card! Go, Twin Dragons!_"

Ohko smiled as a large bright purple energy enveloped both of his legs. He ran off, preparing to meet Stoutland's greatest attack with his newest one. Ohko and Stoutland jumped towards each other; Stoutland throwing his entire weight towards Ohko, and Ohko getting ready to pretty much drop kick Stotutland mid air.

Both attacks made contact and a large explosion appeared.

The vibrations of the attack shook the gym once more. But this time, everyone in the museum was chanting wild cheers as the battle reached its climax. No longer were they bored from watching what they thought would be a one sided battle.

Two objects fell from the impact and landed hard on the ground. It was both Stoutland and Ohko.

Then only one of them rose from the ground.

"**That… was tight… good fight yo.**"

Anto sighed in relief while Lenora only smiled. "As bulky Stoutland was, Your Sawk had quite some power in him. It was obvious he would win with the way he was handling Stoutland. Still, I had a wonderful battle!"

Anto raised a thumbs-up to Ohko, who simply smiled and returned the thumbs up.

New mental note to Anto: give Ohko an award during the talk.

[Later…]

"That was amazing Anto!" Summer cried in excitement.

"You and Lenora had everyone glued to the screen. It was a very exciting match to watch." Hawes congratulated Anto kindly.

"It was an exciting match for me too. Definitely one of my more memorable matches," Lenora admitted. "But now question time, how did you command your Pokémon like that?"

"Sorry, Lenora, but its Anto's secret," Wes started. "Can't let people figure out his tricks before he enters into the League."

"Darn! But I'll keep an eye out for you! I'm sure this year's league will be interesting if you enter it!" Lenora chuckled jubilantly. "… Now before I forget… this is the Basic Badge. It proves your victory here in my gym, and take this…" Lenora handed out a yellow disc along with the badge.

"Even I felt bad at how your Patrat looked so defeated. So that TM I just gave you was Thunderbolt! Use it to your heart's content, and work on that range problem!"

Anto smiled and bowed to Lenora thanking her as he did.

He looked back into the second badge he received.

Two down, six to go.

[Elsewhere…]

He spotted the boy along with the others leave the Gym. Soon they would make their way back to that accursed Pinwheel Forest, away from his watchful eyes.

"**Milord? Why do we avoid entering into the forest?**"

"The forest is **her** domain. Nothing a thing passes by the Sacred Sword of the Winds."

"**I can rip out her throat!**"

"… Underestimating your enemy is fatal and a sign of overconfidence that leads to weakness. And I have no use for a Pokémon with any weakness."

"**Forgive me sire, I was merely expressing my loyalty to thou. I would carve out my own eye if thou doth ask.**"

"Understandable. However, despite your power, A Sword of Justice is more than match with you through experience. There is a reason they are beheld as legends. They are never to be underestimated."

"**As thou speak sire… then what shall we do?**"

"We will have to take the sea route to avoid her domain and reach all together. We were careless before when those rangers found us, more so when you disobeyed my orders and confronted him."

"…"

"Yet we seemed to have gained more than lost despite your disobedience… for that… you are still useful…"

"**Thou truly are a merciful being, master!**"

"I am honestly surprised at how many things you can actually call me sometimes… The four are now resting. We will take this time to go ahead. We have much more ground to cover than them, so it's best to begin now."

"**And… of the other lords and ladies? Should we message them?**"

"No, they are preparing for Dimension Enterprise to make their move. No doubt they're sending their top hunters for… you know. … They have also been dealing with increased activity from Interpol, so for now, Sierra and I are the only ones in Unova. That is enough questions, we move now."

The two beings vanished in a blink of an eye.

[Meanwhile…]

The Pokémon stared at the scared and burnt area of the forest, dropping her rocks that she spent an entire week collecting at the river bank for their colors and shapes.

"… **What the heck happened to my home!?**"

**{Author Notes}**

**(Note: I was a bit of a hurry, so sorry if there are mistakes.)**

**And there! Hopefully you enjoyed the battle with Lenora. I noticed that in both the anime and Manga, she at least had a Pokémon that could force a switch out. I played with her a little, giving her two of her stronger Pokémon from both the Manga and the Anime. Her Watchog is from the Anime with Ash and her Stoutland is from the Pokémon Adventures magna. I saw some interesting potential if these two Pokémon were Ohko and Takezo's opponents. And I think I enjoyed how they came out.**

**Now for another important fact about this chapter…**

**I want to talk about the dual moves or fusion moves.**

**For here, I've always noticed how odd things were when the anime showed contests. May or Dawn would always end up using their Pokémon moves differently, sometimes in tandem with other ones as well. **

**If the Pokémon moves could be that flexible, I want to see if I can make them bend even more…**

**As such with the Fusion Moves.**

**Even though it's a cool power boost to the characters, I won't give it that benefit that makes the character too strong(Let's not make things too OP in this story unless plot demands alright?), which is why I imposed some restraints to this type of usage and more draw backs as the time comes.**

**But it will also have some advantages as it progresses. **

**One small note I didn't really go over was the fact that Tracey allowed Anto to work out some Fusion Moves with his Pokémon as well.**

**Another major note that I sort of skimmed was Anto also telling and explaining to Wes and Summer that he could communicate to other Pokémon.**

**Now Anto has two badges! Which means it's time for the third badge in the next city! I wonder what kind of crazy adventure our heroes will get caught up next before that next badge?**

**Next time on, O.B.A.!**

"**A new Teammate?" **

"**If you would like to make an appointment please slap your forehead—I mean press 0."**

**Thank you for reading! **


	11. Ep 11: Personal History

**Two words.**

**Pokémon Insurgence!**

**An awesome new fanmade game with a very interesting concept.**

**Delta Pokémon.**

**For those that don't know, Pokémon Insurgence is about a much darker story where NPCs sort of die at the drop of a hate or a sneeze. **

**Among the darker themes are experimentation on Pokémon= the delta Pokémon. These Pokémon are basically normal Pokémon with different types instead of the normal ones. Like a Charmander that is Ghost and Dragon type instead of fire.**

**I think I kind of want that. It might fit in my story… if I choose to add it.**

… **Who am I kidding, of course I'm going to add it! But in since it's a fan made game, I might have some copy right issues if I just take it so…**

**Copyright Disclaimer: Delta Pokémon and several of its characters are owned by the people who created Pokémon Insurgence. If you would like to know more about them, please visit their website in ** insurgence. cmdrd .com

**Wow. Copyright disclaimers. I haven't done those in forever.**

* * *

He spoke to the man in the Torren Region, a place known in infamy next to Orre. Where Orre was a wasteland where people struggled to survive, Torren was a region where people struggled to live.

The land was plagued by five separate sociopathic cults that killed anyone of their choosing at the drop of their hat. That was until a year ago, a powerful man accompanied by a Hoopa defeated all of the cults and restored peace back into the region. He was called the Augur in that region, a title given to the Strongest of Trainers. However, he has been considered missing for that year.

"Professor Reukra, I thank you once more for the business avenue you have opened with us. As promised, we have sent the data files of Cipher's Shadow Pokémon Project. The ability to create a move that is super effective against all types of Pokémon."

"_Thank you. … It appears that you have even given us data on their future XD project with notes from your own scientists… how kind of you._"

The leader nodded. "We take our business very seriously."

"_That is what I respect about you, Mr. Dimensions, you care only for your practice much like we of The Cult of Perfection. … But that is also why I distrust you._"

Mr. Dimensions chuckled. "Same to you Professor Reukra. However, we both pride ourselves in being logical men, and with that in mind, right now our interests are aligned and we benefit from our continued partnership. All I can say is good luck to whoever finds the reason to backstab the other first."

"… _That sounds fair. We will be doing business again._"

The video ended, leaving Mr. Dimension to glance over at the Great Ball in front of him.

He took the sphere and held it softly in his palm. "… Delta Pokémon hmm? At times I wonder why Arceus gifted us Humans with imagination if we can do this over a measly span of several thousand years. … Like Pokémon, we too evolve…"

He sighed.

"However, what are we all evolving into?"

* * *

[Elsewhere.]

"Hey! Hey, Anto!"

"Hmm? Oh, ****, what's up? Aren't you going home after practice?"

"I was going to ask you that! Don't you take the bus ride home? Why are you heading back to school this late?"

"I'm going to ***** with *****. I promised to ***** him yesterday."

"… But isn't that his job to *******? Why are you ***** with him?"

"He **** me some wonderful **** whenever I go there. It's really fun, if you have the time you should come with us."

"You really like to ***** huh?"

"… Almost…"

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I almost **** it as much, or maybe even more."

Anto woke up.

Then he noticed as he tilted his head that he had an unfinished blue berry bagel on the desk near his bed.

"_OK that's enough of those for a while._" He promised himself poorly. After all, the doughnut shaped counterparts were surprisingly good.

Anto got up from his bed.

He better start packing for the trip to Castella City.

However, there was one little thing that he needed to do just before he left.

"_Hello. This is Dimension Enterprise. You have been connected to customer service. How may I help you_?"

Anto brought out a notebook. "I just have a question. Does your company sell necklaces or pendants?"

The attendant just stared at the screen. "_Umm…n-no. We do not sell jewelry. Is… is that all?"_

Anto thought about it a bit.

In hindsight, he probably should have had more questions prepared for the attendant. But there was the fact he didn't know what exactly to ask them. It was sort of like that case where one answer appears, but more questions take its place.

If only there was some way to get more than one answer…

Anto scribbled down on the piece of paper. "Do you have any physical building or branch here in Unova?"

The Attendant in the screen typed something into another computer and waited a few seconds as the lists came out. "_Hmm, yes we do. One of our branch offices for Unova can be located in Castelia City._" She said, finishing reading the results.

Anto made a thank you and waved goodbye to the attendant and ending the call.

"Well, add that to the 'to do list'." A voice called out that seemed to be listening to the mute's conversation.

Anto turned around to see Wes standing by the archway closest to him. Wes stood up and walked over to him casually while taking about current plans. "It figures that Castelia City would have a lot of things going on since it is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in Unova, but I didn't expect so much of our goals to be a part of it." He pointed out.

There really was a lot to do over at Castelia City now that Anto thought about it. Wes needed some new custom gear to fully fix Summer's Capture Styler, there was also the third badge to collect, and now there was Dimension Enterprise to check out. … There was also the fact that Wes did admit that Dimension Enterprises was actually in illegal trading business, but had no physical proof of it.

Considering the public face of D.E. seemed fairly normal, there was a chance that Anto may have come from the darker side of the mysterious corporation. Still, who knew what kinds of horrors awaited behind a multibillion dollar corporation?

If movies and clichés were any hint, there was going to be more than he could count pieces of sand on a beach.

Anto sighed and wrote something down before showing it to Wes.

"Is it too late to go back to Orre with you and become a simple thief?"

Wes smirked at the jab of all his complaints about life being easier as a Snagger. "You know, for a mute kid, you've got a way with words."

* * *

Episode 11: Open Mike.

"And finally, after all of that, we finally saved the Oblivia Region!" Summer proudly finished as the four continued their walk down Pinwheel Forest.

"Uh question?" Wes asked. "It's sort of bothered me since you first mentioned it, but how exactly did Guardian Signs work in the past if they only seem to work with your Capture Stylers?"

"I'm sort of curious too." Tracey admitted.

Anto nodded in agreement.

"… It… it just does!"

Wes pointed out something else. "One more thing, you said a Celebi pulled Ben into the past? Effectively making him the ancient hero you heard about in the present? Which in turn, meant he was the one that created the Guardian Signs in the first place… when he only learned all of those in the present… ?"

Summer seemed flustered as she tried to gather her thoughts. "I'm pretty sure he didn't create them per say. … D-don't think about it too hard!"

"Too late, I'm pondering the exact existence of said Signs in the first place," Wes teased sarcastically. "Seriously, it's almost as baffling as how Anto here somehow defied Pokémon physics and created Fusion Moves! Next thing you'll be telling me is that there is a way to evolve Pokémon into powers that rival legendaries, but can only do so during battle!"

The poor souls all laughed ignorantly.

Tracey took a very inquisitive look though as a curious thought crossed his head. "Summer, why did you want to become a Pokémon Ranger?"

"Huh?"

"Well, sorry for asking, it's just that out of everything you could have done. Why be a Pokémon Ranger?"

Summer blinked at the mention of her past. She seemed to think about it for a second before explaining it. "Well, to be honest, it's a lot more normal than you think. I grew up in Almia, one of the few Regions that don't have a Pokémon League. Almia, as you know is one of the main Ranger associated Regions besides Fiore, so there were more Rangers there than trainers." Summer regaled a bit while adding some back information. She glanced around the boys to see all of them listening carefully, except Wes who seemed interested at some random tree in the distance, but otherwise seemed to respect listening to her.

"Being surrounded by Rangers made me want to be like them. They were so cool when they would protect Pokémon, uphold the law, and how they beat the bad guys! I was there when Tim Dim Sun almost destroyed Almia, but the Rangers defied all odds and defeated them, restoring peace to the land! Ever since then, I strived to become more and more like them."

"So you became a ranger because it looked cool?" Wes asked plainly, to which Summer huffed.

"It wasn't because of that! Being a ranger means responsibility of helping Pokémon and Humans co exist and promoting goodwill while defending peace!" Summer explained.

Wes rolled his eyes, unimpressed with all of the talk on justice and peace and what not. It made him rather annoyed listening to Summer's little commercial talk.

Summer turned back to Tracey. "What about you Tracey? Why did you want to be a Pokémon Watcher?"

"Well my mother was an artist and my father was a breeder. Back then my mother taught me how to draw by showing me how to draw Pokémon. While my father would have me help in learning the habits of certain Pokémon in our small village." He chuckled at the memory. "Back then my drawings were as bad as Ant—I mean they were really bad when I first started out." Tracey chuckled nervously as he saw the mute leer at him.

'_Smooth._' Wes and Summer thought in their heads.

"But over time, I got better and I wanted to draw more Pokémon… then I found out about Pokémon Watchers and well… left off from there." Tracey duly finished.

Tracey looked over but soon stayed silent. He wanted to keep the conversation going but then he realized which options were left: one without a past and one who wishes he forgot his past. Asking either of them to continue the topic would be awkward for everyone.

"Hey!" Summer stared off much to Tracey's relief. "Since the bridge is under construction, don't we have to take a hike through Pinwheel Forrest to enter Skyarrow Bridge?"

"I think it sucks how the construction workers have to occupy the other bridge in order to fix the other one. Couldn't they have found a better way of fixing it? Or make another makeshift bridge at least?" Wes complained since he was quite annoyed about their situation.

"It's not like we haven't been here before! I'm sure we already reached the worse of it when we stumbled on to that Hydreigon!" Summer exclaimed optimistically.

"… Did you just jinx us?" Wes noted with slight irritation.

Summer dismissed him. "Pssh, you need to learn how to relax Wes. I'm sure we can handle—"

A Venipede fell from the sky and landed unconscious in front of the four.

"… Wes, not one word." She didn't need to look at Wes to feel his smug gaze aimed at her.

"How about four?" Wes thought about saying the infamous words of 'I told you so.'

This time a Pidove and a Patrat fell in front of them. Then they saw a large beam shot out from up ahead of them, followed by several screeches.

Tracey removed his bag pack and kneeled to one of the Pokémon. "I'll take care of these Pokémon. You three check what's going on over there!"

The other three nodded before making their way. Summer headed in first, coming out in what looked to be a clearing filled with two different groups of Pokémon facing against each other.

"What's going on here?" Summer asked.

Wes and Anto sent out their Pokémon before Wes turned to the mute.

"Hey, why don't you ask them what's going on?"

Anto stared at both sides. He looked at the collective group of Pokémon and concentrated on some of the screaming Pokémon. His eyes widened and he wrote down something in his notebook.

"The group on our right was trying to find a new home. Apparently that Hydreigon destroyed a populated living area for Pokémon in this forest and both sides are getting into a territorial problem!"

"Wait, you mean this is our fault!?" Wes screamed out in surprise.

Summer twitched. This was their fault?

"Dee?" Wes' Deino tilted his head.

At the small dragon's meep, **all** wild Pokémon turned their gaze towards the young dragon.

"Oh, Celebi." The three humans and their Pokémon took a step back.

Ohko looked surprisingly pumped. "**This looks like One V.S. Ahh! I'll take you on!**"

"**The term is 'All'. And No. Please do not provoke the approximately fifty Pokémon in front of us.**" Takezo warned slightly while readying his blades.

"**But in case he does decided to go Jinkins on us that doesn't mean we have to help him right?**" Wes' Umbreon asked questioningly though he didn't really seem to need to be so cautious about the question since Ohko seemed oblivious to the implications.

Espeon stared down the Pokémon glancing his way. "**Unfortunately I don't think they will have the mind to ignore us if just one of us attacks.**"

"**Bark!**" Deino yelped.

"**Tell me again why we have so much trouble trying to teach the kid that he isn't a Lillipup?**" Ohko quickly mentioned.

"**That! There!**" A Scolipede angrily yelled from the group on the right. "**A spawn of that accursed Pokémon that destroyed our homes!**"

The two groups of Pokémon seemed to move closer to the heroes. With the others all ready to defend the youngest member.

"Nerd, I don't know how, but I blame you for this."

"Shut it, Wes! Anto, can't you explain to them we main no harm?"

Anto glanced at everyone in his group that stared back at him. What the heck? Since when was he their trump card?

Anto was shoved by Wes towards the group of Pokémon. He begrudgingly leered at the blue clad teen before fixing himself and trying to… aim… his ability to all of them. "_Er… Hello! Can I have your attention please?_"

"**NO!**" They all yelled at him, causing the mute to flinch back towards his friends.

"**Well that was rude.**" Wes' Espeon noted.

Anto felt some rising anger within him, if anyone paid better attention, they would have noticed a small gleam of purple along the edges of Anto's eyes. "_Alright, listen up you mindless masses of unthinking idiots!_"

"**What?!**" Some of the Pokémon cried out in response while others blinked in surprise.

"_Maybe if you would all STOP SHOUTING FOR ONE BLASTED MINUTE! … We could actually work things out._" Anto shouted out within their minds, forcing the groups of wild Pokémon to back off.

"**Yo Boss that kind of hurt.**" Ohko used his pinky to clean his ear.

"_Sorry about that._" Anto quickly glanced over to his group's Pokémon. He turned back to the crowd of Pokémon. "_Alright, look. What's going on here?_"

A wild Stoutland from the left side walked up. He explained that the Scolipede's group was from the side of the forest where the Hydreigon rampaged. Lacking food and shelter they moved over here. Now his group was the one that lived here originally and sharing their resources would hamper them. And there was also the fact that they wanted to attack the small little Deino that was now a part of their group.

It was a tricky situation, but a problem where the supply did not meet the demands. Anto looked over to several grass Pokémon and remembered something.

"_Um hey? There are fifty of you right? Can't you guys find a grass type or anyone that knows or can learn Grassy Terrain?_"

All Pokémon's rage instantly died down and was replaced with some looks of sheer shock and sheepishness.

"**Well that's kind of anti climatic. Can't really complain though.**" Umbreon relaxed as the words hung in the air.

Summer and Wes breath s sigh of relief when they noticed the sudden shift in the mood.

"**There's a Snivy in our group who can use it…**" The Stoutland started weakly. "**We will accompany your group in re-healing the burnt land.**"

The Scolipede agreed before the Pokémon slowly started to disperse in different groups.

With the danger now gone, Wes casually came up to Anto and patted his shoulder. "Well, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting that to actually work." The Snagger half expected him to be mauled which would probably buy everyone time to run away. … While the thought did cross his mind, he wasn't actually going to act on it if it did happen.

"Good Job Anto, what did you say to them?" Summer asked before Anto explained to them via hand signs. "Oh! That sounds creative! Using a Pokémon with Grassy Terrain to fix their home!" Summer exclaimed.

Deino walked a little beyond the humans, right up to Takezo whose blade was still drawn. "**You alright Mr. Big Eyes?**"

Takezo turned to the dragon. "**Um, please call me Takezo. And as for what I'm feeling…**" Takezo stepped forward, staring down what looked to be a random part of the forest. "**It is quite rude to stare! Reveal your presence to us!**"

Then everything happened in a blur.

A forceful and almost arcane gale of winds stormed the group. Takezo dashed in front of everyone, held his blade, and quickly empowered it with Umbra Shred, the combined move of Cut and Assurance.

Everyone but Takezo was distracted as they shielded their face from the gales. However, Deino felt the samurai beside him swing his blade in fast motions and heard small pangs as he made each swing.

The winds died down as mysteriously as they started.

"What the heck—WHAT THE HECK?" Wes cried out as he looked at the area around them. Surrounding them were pieces of sliced land. Gashes and other tears surrounded the group except for the area they were in. Following the cone or triangle shape of the area that was untouched, they traced the slashes around them until they saw the point of separation was in front of Takezo with the land directly in front of him with a mini trench right beneath him.

Takezo panted heavily and deactivated the darkness enchanted blade, but no sooner than he did, his wooden sword fell into many smaller pieces into the trench in front of him.

Takezo wheezed heavily. "**… Is… there a particular reason for this? … Sword of Justice?**"

Everyone looked beyond to where Takezo was staring, and they were all amazed. A powerful, green, four-legged Pokémon with red accents stood some distance away from Takezo.

Summer gasped as she saw the Pokémon. "No way! That Pokémon!"

"Not a native, what is that Pokémon?" Wes cried out as he and his other Pokémon got ready.

"That Pokémon is Virizion! She's supposed to be part of the Unova Legendaries as a part of the Swords of Justice! They say they appear to save Pokémon… but. … Well… records show… they kind of hate humans… a lot. They blame us for starting wars and hurting other Pokémon." Summer explained uneasily.

Wes fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I never liked Justice anyway. Too overrated."

Just then Tracey came in carrying some of the injured and unconscious Pokémon with him. "Guys! What was that large gust of wind!?" Then he looked over to Virizion and in his surprise accidentally dropped the Pidove like a rag doll.

"…" The other three then face palmed.

"**Apologizes,**" A female's voice appeared in everyone's head, cuasing them to flinch towards the Sword of Justice. "**But I had to admit I was quite curious when you had sensed my presence, especially from your kind,**" She pointed the compliment towards the gasping Takezo. "**I also apologize for attacking, but as the human female stated, I am not quite fond of Humans… yet to my surprise you reflected what was meant to be a distraction attack to scare them off.**"

"S-scare us off?" Tracey cried out as he gently placed the Pokémon he was carrying down.

Takezo slowly stood back up, Ohko, Umbreon, and Espeon slowly forming behind him to protect their trainers and friends. "…**Is that not shameful to attack one who is not prepared? Where is the justice in that?**" Takezo questioned almost passive aggressively.

"**The attack was not meant for you. It was meant as lesson for the humans.**"

"What do you mean you attacked us!?" Wes screamed out angrily, throwing his free arm out. "What the heck did we do to you!?"

Virizion glared at Wes, but the Snagger stared back equally. She slowly strode her way towards him "**Is it not your fault that this problem arose in the first place? I recall over a week ago that boy with a machine strapped on his arm and the girl fashioning a similar device came into the Hydreigon's Cave, causing the mother to lash out at the later loss of her child.**"

"That was an accident!" Summer cried out. "We didn't mean for that to happen!"

"**That did not stop the Scolipede's group from suffering over the loss of their home and scavenging for food for several days.**" Virizion pointed out coldly. "**Nor did it stop them from confronting the other clans of Pokémon that live in this forest.**"

Takezo had enough. He stood up and pointed at Virision accusingly. "**And what did ****you**** do then to keep the peace!? The humans here may have caused this, but they were also the ones who settled this without a need for violence! What did you do? Sulk and stalk them as you aimed your failed frustrations at innocent beings?**"

Virizion's eyes narrowed to Takezo. "**I see your tongue is as sharp as your sword and skill, warrior. However, you are pointing it the wrong way.**"

"**I wield my sword in honor for my master. I care not whom I point it against, be it evil or just. I chose to wield my blade for the sake I share my friendship with.**" Takezo proudly declared. But Anto noticed that he referred to someone as his 'master'.

Wes walked up to Virizion, staring hard into her eyes. "I may not understand what the sword user is saying, but I do know he seems to have a point, seeing you flinch to his words. If I had to guess, it was probably about us fixing the problem you couldn't figure out how to solve. Some Sword of Justice, getting jealous of a bunch of humans doing its job."

Virizion's gaze suddenly made the winds around all of them blow in deadly ambiance. "**Your words mean nothing to me, Thief. I see it in your very eyes: the people you've hurt, the lies you've spoken, and the crimes you've committed.** **It is humans like you that the Swords of Justice wish we could bring justice upon.**"

The Snagger's mind flashed with pieces of his past; a past he spent so much in trying to forget. Wes gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and snarled. "JUSTICE!? WHERE THE HELL WAS YOUR SO CALLED JUSTICE WHEN MY FATHER DIED OUT IN THAT DESSERT!? WHERE WAS JUSTICE WHEN I WAS SO WEAK… too weak to move… that I had to sell my… my father's favorite bronze, Clock Master Stopwatch just to eat someone's leftover scarps to not starve to death?" At the last part, it sounded more like he was questioning himself than the powerful legendary in front of him.

"…**It is none of my concerns in what humans do to one another.**"

"That's just pure bigotry and racism," Wes spat darkly. "If you hypocrites just learned to _why_ we humans even do the things, instead of judging others with your own swords so far stuck into your rears, then you will find out why people are greedy, why they are hateful, spiteful! … Because they were alone; they were hated; they were abandoned; they were not loved. … Team Snagem was more than a criminal organization. Gonzap collected us all from the dirt of the road, gave us a place we could sleep under the cold freezing nights, a mug or glass to drink the coolest of liquids on the hottest of blazing heat, and a mess hall where all the fun idiots gathered around and drank beer all day and night long, forgetting the troubles that befell all of them before they started sipping that alcohol, and laughing as if they finally found their 'Beer Buddy for Life!'. The world had wronged us, so we wronged them. That was justice to us! … Until those idiots came…"

Everyone was silent as they listened to Wes. He sounded so angry at the start, so mad. But they had no idea why—they had no clue what he even went through until that moment. Tracey was horrified at what he heard. His own father died… and he had to sell whatever memento he had of him to live?

Anto felt rather a great empathy with Wes. He couldn't explain it, but he wanted to say—to truly tell him that he knew what it was like to hate one's self so much. He didn't care why he had this feeling, but he wanted to express it.

And Summer's heart was pulled. She quickly thought about this morning when she talked so freely about her past to Wes and the others. She felt a secret shame of being so proud and remembering every vivid moment of her life, yet Wes did so much to forget and repress his horrible past. Was that why he struggled to open up to her? He didn't want to be a Snagger but he still did it for revenge on people who wronged him? How could you openly say that you didn't want to be a Snagger because you were forced, but because you actually _enjoyed_ bringing others pain?

Wes sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Drat… now look at what you made me do." He scoffed softly.

Virizion closed her eyes… then stepped back. "**The sorrow in your eyes… never have I felt such despair and pain. … If what you say is even half of the truth, then perhaps we were wrong after all. I still believe that all humans are evil… but I will at least acknowledge there will always be a ****reason**** why your species does what it does.**" She reclined her head and in one swift motion, brought it down. This caused another storm of winds to come. Everyone shielded their eyes, and as soon as it ended, they saw that Virizion had left to probably ponder about her views on humans.

A few seconds passed until all eyes slowly gravitated towards Wes. He had just spilled some rather juicy beans about his past that he originally wasn't planning to share.

He was surprised when it was his Espeon that spoke out first. "**Wes?**"

Everyone stared at the lavender Pokémon in shock. Wes; however, was mildly surprised and asked, "Did you just talk?"

The Espeon glanced around. "**I… I was just paying attention to how that Pokémon used Telepathy despite not being a psychic type. After hearing and watching her use it a few times, I think I got how she worked it… you sound clearer now.**"

A small smile appeared on Wes' face. "Same to you. So this is what you actually sound like huh? I knew you were a guy, but I always imagined you to be more feminine for some reason."

"**Not my fault I look girly now. I blame genetics.**" Espeon rolled his eyes before turning back to his trainer. "**But Wes… your my—no ****our**** partner. For my dumb brother here and now that other little dragon who we try to convince is not a Lillipup. You cared for us and treated us well. I don't care if she's the ruler of the world; I would gladly stand with you against the world.**"

Wes's smiled grew. "Thanks that means a lot. I really do mean it."

"Um Wes?" The Snagger turned back to see the Ranger struggling with her words before breathing in deeply."I'm sorry for what happened to you. I really am. And now I also see why you want to start a new leaf… but I still think you're a jerk that needs to work on his social skills."

"Heh," Wes half sighed. "Don't tell me you're going to spend you days trying to make me fit back into society as 'a well mannered civilian'…" Then he full on groaned when he saw a look of victory in her eyes.

Tracey spoke out. "I'm sorry too. I had no idea that you went through that…"

Wes shrugged. "Hey, you're a watcher not a psychic. Even then things like these can't all be known." Wes turned to Anto, but then remembered an important fact. "Oh wait. Oops, wow you are hard to remember that you're mute."

Anto took a glance at Espeon before looking back at Wes. "_Oh come on!? How hard is it to remember someone you travel with is mute!?_"

The other three human just stared. Now it was Anto's voice—if it even was his voice—that spoke in their heads.

"OK, maybe that Virizion did hit me in the head or something…" Wes muttered as he placed a hand on his head to feel for any injuries.

"_Wes, I just asked Espeon to use telepathy on me. It's finally cool to speak to you guys—well not orally or by signs, but this feels easier than all the others._" Anto commented. "_Unfortunately I think I can only do this when Espeon is out._"

"Wow…" Wes started thoughtfully before turning to Espeon. "Good job Espeon, way to make things even weirder."

"**Oh please, Wes. Things were boring enough until this.**" The psychic's tone was heard to be sarcastic in their minds.

Anto thought out. "_Oh and since you can now talk to other Pokémon, I'm shoving you to be peace keeper next time we face a mob of angry, blood lusting Pokémon!_"Anto finished with a evil smirk.

Wes found himself smiling wider. It was odd really; he never really felt this type of acceptance in a long time. These people, despite being so different from him, really seemed to actually care about him. Sure, he wasn't the best at expressing anything but sarcasm most of the time, but it was interesting to find people that were quick enough to laugh at your mistakes first before helping you up then holding it against you… like he would do. It felt weird… being himself… and not putting up much of a front as he used to… it almost felt relieving.

"Racist Legendaries, ugly cultists, strange violent Pokémon, Telepathic mutes, and incompetent rangers… holy heck life was simpler in Orre." Wes exclaimed while ignoring the call out of dissatisfaction from Anto and Summer.

"**Perhaps, but does not hide the sense that you enjoy this over your previous home.**" Everyone looked over to Takezo slowly smiling.

The Snagger clicked his tongue. "Wow, the first thing I hear from your Patrat and it's already leagues smarter than you three combined." Wes noted that to his three human companions. In response, said human companions glared back at Wes for the lighthearted insult.

"**I'm still in the mood to punch something, yo. Think we can call that green dude back to fight him?**" Ohko pointed out towards the ruined field in front of them.

"**Please do not. And once more, 'he' is a she.**" Takezo corrected his teammate.

Wes rolled his eyes and turned to Deino and Umbreon. He was surprised they weren't talking telepathically.

"**Oh,**" Espeon started out. "**My brother and Deino are dark types. I have no idea to connect them because my powers don't work on their typing.**"

"Well this is something at least. You could translate for him then."

"**I barely listen to half the things my brother says, why would I start translating for him?**" Espeon said before earning look from his dark type brother.

Everyone else chuckled lightly at that.

Then something else came out of the bushes. Everyone tensed toward the sound, but relaxed and became confused at what they saw next.

"**W-where is she?! Am I late!? … What the heck happened here!?**" Her voice was heard by the humans. Epson must have accidentally linked her to the conversation.

A shiny Petilil came tumbled and rolled out and surveyed the area, seemingly ignoring the large group in front of her.

"**Noooo! I missed her! I thought I had finally found Ms. Virizion!**" The small Pokémon started rolling in anguish.

Everyone looked at each other then Takezo stepped out to greet the odd Pokémon. "**Miss?**"

The Petilil stopped rolling around and brought herself back up to meet with Takezo. "**You! Did you see her!?**"

"If her you mean that racist hypocrite, then yeah…" Wes spoke out bitterly while folding his arms.

However, rather than seem discouraged, the strange Petilil actually seemed excited. "**You guys did meet her!? I'm ssooooo envious!**"

The others all raised their brow at the reaction.

"**Um miss? You do realize we had a rather bitter encounter with her?**"Takezo pointed out calmly.

"**Huh?**" She seemed to snap out of her excitement and take a good look at the group then her gaze fell on the humans and she nodded. "**Oh, she bashed your humans didn't she?**"

Takezo nodded. "**That is one way to simplify it, yes.**"

"**Hmm…**" The shiny Pokémon's gazed met with Anto's, who the boy wondered why she was staring at him. "**OK! I've decided! You! You're a trainer aren't you!?**"

"_Err… yes?_"

"**Take me with you!**"

"_Why!?_" Anto cried out in surprise.

"**Humans who cross paths with at least one of the Swords of Justice, have a higher chance of meeting them again! And I need to meet with Lady Virizion!**" She exclaimed.

"_You're willing to travel with me so easily? What do you need to meet her for?_"

Petilil jumped impatiently. "**I just want to thank her personally! Besides, the fact that all you humans seem unscathed meeting Lady Virizion means that you're either strong enough to face her or she acknowledges you! Either way will help me!**"

"**So you are basically asking us for help in order for your own personal gain?**" Takezo asked.

Petilil stared at Takezo. "**Oh. Is that how I sound like?**"

Anto rubbed his head. "_Well yeah, but then again, I have no real reason to refuse. So you want to come along with us?_"

Wes looked at him weirdly. "You want to bring a fangirl of that thing to come along with us?"

"_She's Shiny. If she gets too much on our nerves, we could sell her to the highest bidder._" He thought out half sarcastically.

"Ahh, I like the way you think." Wes was impressed.

"I don't!" Summer yelled out with Tracey looking slightly horrified. "That sounds horrible, Anto!"

"_I was kidding, I was kidding!_" Anto waved his hands out nervously.

"**Huh I guess we're both selfish then,**" Petilil giggled. "**If you even did try that, I will get back at you.**"

"_I guess that's fair._" Anto admitted. "_Well… no one else seems to disagree. Welcome aboard. I think you'll be named… Lily._"

Lily blinked. "**Simple yet sweet… I can work with that. Lily it is.**" She then walked up to Tracey and the unconscious Pokémon. "**Gimme a sec…**" She then unleashed a sweet Aromatherapy attack on the three fainted Pokémon, waking them up and making them go away.

Anto was surprised that she seemed healing oriented. That had possibilities if she allowed him to make her battle.

[Meanwhile…]

"UGH! Finally! We've made it to Unova!" He turned to his other two as they made their way out of the air port. "So what next?"

"We split up," The female of the trio explained formally, continuing their walk and ignoring all else. "Warden, cross Skyarrow Bridge. Magus, you take the North Western area of Unova, while I will make preparations for the North Eastern side of Unova. The OmniGauntlets, our special all-purpose gear given to us personally by Mr. Dimensions, should be able to detect the seed within a fifty mile radius. Look for populated areas; some of our profilers suggest Subject Five will be looking for his memories."

The last man happily took a flyer from a nearby person giving them out and smiled as he returned to catch up with them. "Right then brudahs and sistahs. While ya be doin' that. I'mma go and check out the Music Festival in Nimbasa City. They be havin everything man!" He showed them a flier about a grand event taking place soon in Nimbasa City.

"Hmm… I would have said to keep to the mission… but if this event attracts Subject Five… Warden, continue your route, I will accompany Magus and prepare a trap."

"Inquisitor, if not for the fact that I know you never take anything seriously, I would have called you out on Tarous crap for sending only me to do work while you two enjoyed yourselves."

"Hey man, I be taking work seriously too." Magus defended.

"Regardless, take what you will to set up at our Unova base here in Castelia City then proceeded to your route. And remember, not only are we racing to find him before Interpol does, but we are also racing to find Subject Five… from the other **four** subjects…"

It turned deathly silent between the three of them.

They strode powerfully out the airport, the sun shining as they walked out into the light and into the hunt.

**{Author Notes}**

**Sorry if the Swords of Justice seem a bit biased. I loosely based them off their Manga counterparts where they really hated humans. So if they seem hostile here, it's because they've lived a long time fighting against humans that they've become a bit biased an what all of them are like.**

**I'm going to be working a bit more on Lily's future character. I have some ideas about her like this.**

**I'm a little sad that this is mostly some plot building, but at least we get more character development! … Why do I think I'm going a bit fast with this? Nah, at least I'm not spilling everything.**

**If everything goes as plan, next chapter is more action packed! … If you can figure out why…**

**Fufufu…**

**Now as you can see, I took the route of Pokémon talking with Humans. Though I worked a bit around it.**

**Espeon is a powerful psychic Pokémon, but didn't know how to use telepathy until he saw Virizion do it in front of him. This way, I find the way Espeon learning telepathy a little more accepting of the rules where in the anime and manga most normal psychic Pokémon don't have telepathy, but legendaries do. There is also some speculation that the swords of justice use Aura, but the basic idea is that Espeon still found a way to incorporate even an aura based telepathy into psychic based.**

**Also with Espeon being the super translator for everyone that means Anto can (again) talk to the others. This way, I can finally make Anto have more conversations with the others. This is a huge relief on me writing wise… but kind of undermines his muteness a bit story wise since there is a reason for it.**

**Wes himself reveals bits of his past. I'm not going to reveal all of it, but everyone is starting to have an idea of what he went through.**

**(I also am glad about this chapter's title: Open Mike. There are a lot of reasons why this title fits soo much…)**

**Well that is all I'm going over for—wait…**

**Hey, there is something I'm planning soon. The Pokémon world is usually a huge place, and in the anime, the cities area always bigger than the games make it. Because of this, I imagine Nimbasa City to be big enough for an upcoming arc that will forever change this story…**

**I will explain about this cool plan next chapter, but I'm very excited about it. **

**Thank you for reading!**


	12. Ep 12: Bridge Brawl

**{Author notes}**

**Hello readers! And people who just came here to submit your OCs! (you know who you are.)**

**If your looking for the rules to join in this story, they're written down below. While I would recommend you reading the entire story, I also realize I kind of made it long.**

**If you somehow still want to join in on this fun. **

**You can jump to the bottom of this chapter or try to read it to get a small taste of what this story is about.**

**Either way, I hope you enjoy.**

Episode 12: The Set Dominoes

* * *

"Wow! Look at that vast sea!" Summer cooed as she took in the astonishing sight of the Skyarrow Bridge.

The endless sea was beautiful as distant Pokémon poked out of the ocean's surface. The clouds were so far off, but their shadows could reach even the group's area from so far away. The wind softly moved the fresh air around the group, making their lungs inhale as much of the sea air as possible.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Wes remarked slyly while carrying Deino by hand.

Summer turned to the Snagger. "Wes, would it kill you to not be so sarcastic?"

"Yes."

Espeon saw Takezo walk up to him. "**Just mate already.**"

The two humans stared incredulously at the samurai.

"_Oh, don't you DARE start that again!_" Anto called out. "_Seriously what is it with you and that?_"

"**Bad habit. It stopped before since I haven't been with a human in a while. There is also the fact I don't know much about humans to begin with.**"

"You." Wes stared at Takezo. "I'm starting to regret having Espeon give us the ability to talk to you."

"**Everything has its consequences,**" Takezo shrugged. "**Regardless, I have never seen the sea before. It is quite outstanding to see it for the first time**."

"I'm watching you…" Wes warned the samurai who simply shrugged again.

"Anto!" Summer yelled with a flushed face. "Tell Takezo not to say such things! It's indecent! … Wait has he been saying that this whole time!? About us!?" Summer's face became even redder at the thought of Takezo planting ideas like that towards the other Pokémon.

"**Err yeah, but I don't know what mating means yo.**" Ohko pointed out easily.

"**It is the first time I've heard of it.**" Tracey's Scyther voiced out. "**You young ones these days…**"

"**My bro and I kind of thought it was funny.**" Wes Espeon admitted.

Wes stared at his psychic starter. "You two are supposed to be on my side."

"**Who says we can't have more come to your side?**" Espeon drawled smugly.

"No! I am not hearing anymore of this conversation!" Summer yelled hysterically with an obvious red face. "We are just friends, and as soon as everything is over, I am locking him in jail and throwing away the key!" She finished as she stormed into the building before the large winding stairs. Leaving a very unamused Wes to look back at Tracey and Anto.

"So…" Tracey stared out. "What do you think of Summer?"

Both Anto and Wes stared at the headband wearing boy.

"_Dude, too soon._" Anto mentally projected.

"… I am still weirded out by your telepathy…" Tracey responded to Anto who simply shrugged.

Wes sighed in exasperation. "And I thought talking to Pokémon would be a big deal. I miss the days where I thought they just said their names over and over." He trailed lethargically after the Ranger.

"_With all these complaints, you sound like an old man._" Anto commented.

Wes opened his mouth, but realized he had nothing to say. In defeat, he sighed and walked after Summer.

As soon as the four (and most of their Pokémon) came out into the bridge their moods returned to normal. The sea had looked even more beautiful than they had reached the entrance point as they threaded on the great bridge.

"_Hey look! A voyager!_" Anto said as he pointed to the East. True enough a large ferry boat was on its way to move under it.

Tracey placed his hand over his eyes to shield some lighting. "Yeah! It looks to be heading its way towards Castelia City as well!"

Takezo jumped on the rails and looked over to the boat. His sharper eyes were drawn to an odd name, but since he was a Pokémon, he didn't understand it. Had he understood it though, it would have said…

S.S. Sinnoh Voyager.

"It's all quite amazing how there are three bridges like this over in Unova…" Tracey readied his sketch book in case he saw a new potential drawing.

Summer pointed ahead. "Hey look!"

To everyone's surprise there was this circus clown performing by juggling a bunch of colorful balls while balancing on an even bigger ball. Beside him was a levitating Medicham wearing a turban with a fancy gem on its center.

However, when Anto saw him, he immediately had this horrible feeling in his gut. He wondered why; he didn't even seem to have any memories coming out of this odd feeling, but something was telling him to run. Against his better judgment, he ignored them as the others made their way to the performer.

"Hail and well met travelers!" The clown excited called out to them while continuing his gimmick. "My name is Wardeno, the wandering clown!" He stretched out his funny bell shoes and pointed to his Medicham. "And this is the Amazing Budi! A powerful psychic of epic proportions!" Then he briefly pointed to a small empty basket with some loose change in it signifying he was doing this for money.

"**I see a long and healthy life in you, young Bobby.**"

Lily blinked as the fighting Pokémon pointed at her without opening his eyes. "**You do know my species have ****no males**** right?**"

"**Technically, she also the only female Pokémon among us, literally choosing anyone but her would have been at least partially correct in that assumption.**" Takezo described out plainly.

The Medicham remained in his meditative state. "**… I see a long and healthy life in you, young Billy.**"

"**You know, I think you were supposed to ****move**** your finger. Not change the name... or at least use a girl's name.**" Lily deadpanned.

Wes noted something odd beside the clown. "Hey, what happened there?" He pointed over to a rather damaged area in the bridge.

"Oh ho ho!" The clown smiled. "Pokémon battles sometimes break out here. That one is from a recent boy and the janitor of this bridge. The janitor just left to borrow some Pokémon to fix the damage." Wardeno jubilantly exclaimed.

Takezo stared almost hypnotically at damaged area of the bridge. To him, something seemed rather off with the battlefield ahead of them. It almost looked… vicious… almost like when he was in that dog fight against Team Snagem and the Police.

Takezo glanced over to the Medicham and focused closer onto his hands. His fist seemed fresh… new… as if it was recently healed… and there was a scent of medicinal potion around him.

Medicham opened his eyes and smiled at Takezo.

"So? How about it? Spare some alms for a poor clown like me~?" The clown playfully did a hand stand on his large rubber ball.

"Well I'm impressed!" Summer said before trying to fish for some spare change.

Takezo noticed and felt a blip of bloodlust and quickly reached for his newest blade.

Suddenly, clown flipped once more, but as he somersaulted back upright, he kicked the large ball towards Summer, which smashed into her then into Wes. The two slammed into the fence, and Wes struggled to prevent them both from falling off.

"Summer!? Wes?!" Tracey cried out.

Anto turned back—only to see the clown's twisted smile inches from his face. Then a sharp pain before his vision faded into darkness.

"**Anto!**" Takezo raced to attack the man who held Anto's unconscious body. However, a sudden shift forced Takezo into using Detect and stopping just before a Fake Out attack slapped him. Budi the Medicham back flipped back to Wardeno.

"I gotta admit; I was kind of worried about your group parading with many Pokémon around you. But of course that also worked against you." Wardeno smiled darkly behind his clown makeup.

Tracey turned shocked at the man. "What's going on!?"

Espeon and Umbreon were able to rebalance both Summer and Wes. Wes's mind raced as he pieced bits of clues together to come up with an interesting hypothesis. "You! You're from Dimension Enterprise aren't you!?"

The clown's smile dropped. "… What the heck are you talking about?"

"Don't even try to play dumb with me!" Wes declared. "Only Dimension Enterprises has a blasted clue to Anto's past!"

"Tch! I was just going to leave, but if you three know that…" The clown tore of his right sleeve to show a rather buff right arm with some odd looking techno gauntlet. "Budi! Execute Illuminati Protocol."

The Medicham slid into a fighting stance much like a martial tiger stance. "**I see a long and peaceful ****afterlife**** in you… fools…**"

"**You can count right? It's seven against one!**" Umbreon called out.

"_Protocol: Key waves initiated,_" An animatronic voice from Wardeno's gauntlet called out,_ "Awaiting, voice input…_"

"Medichamite!" Wardeno called out before raising his fist up that had the gauntlet.

"_Acknowledged._"

Suddenly a bright orb of colored light surrounded Budi. The gang was surprised and shielded their eyes as the lights grew brighter.

The moment the light died down, everyone was surprised to see the Medicham changed forms!

He know looked more like some kind of enlightened monk with four flowing psychic streams of cloth giving him the look of an enlightened one. His legs looked to be decorated with jeweled, beaded necklaces. The psychic's turban had four flowing stubs and had one stub pointing upward from his usual appearance.

Ohko didn't see the Pokémon coming as he closed the distance between them in seconds then punched him hard into the stomach, forcing the Pokémon to stagger back in pain.

"**Ohko!?**" Takezo cried in surprise as he tried to quickly slash at the back of the fighting type only for one of the four cloths to stop and trap his sword mid air. "**What?!**" Takezo then noticed a hue of psychic energy along the cloth before one other strip turned into a shape of a fist and punched Takezo away.

Lily jumped and launched an Energy Ball while Umbreon launched Secret Power along with Espeon's Psybeam.

Budi telekinetic energy gathered in one of Budi's main arms before he slashed the air and sent a fast Psycho Cut to overpower all three attacks!

"What the heck? How did you do that!?" Wes cried out as he and Summer looked to see all of their Pokémon struggling against one Pokémon. This situation was eerily familiar to him. The strange looking Medicham looked much like that odd winged Absol that seemed way stronger than its usual form.

"Sorry kiddo, I ain't tellin." Wardeno mocked.

Wes turned his gaze at Anto's unconscious slung body before glancing at Espeon. "Espeon, tell everyone to handle that Pokémon!"

The lavender Pokémon's gem shined and all of the team's Pokémon seemed to spring back to life. Tracey then sent out his Sycther, Marill and Venonat to join them.

"Ha! Even a nine on one you stand no chance against a mega evolution!"

"Mega evolution?" Summer repeated curiously.

"**Your fate is sealed. Accept the embrace of death.**" Budi claimed as he lifted his hands from prayer and opened them up to his opponents.

Ohko got back up. "**Yo! Ya don't just sucker punch me without using Sucker Punch!**"

Takezo slid beside him, blade drawn and pointed. "**We need to get Anto! Obstruct our path, and face the consequences!**"

Espeon shouted to all of his allies. "**Ohko, Takezo, Scyther! You three are our front liners! Umbreon, Lily, and I are going to be back line and long range support! The last three aim for the trainer! Get Anto back! Both Groups separate them! GO!**"

Takezo, Scyther, and Ohko charged fiercely at Budi. The supposed Mega launched all four of his psychic cloaks at the close combatants to counteract their rush. Scyther and Takezo burst ahead, flinching two of the fist shaped cloaks with powerful slashes; Takezo wiping two of them with Umbra Slash and Scyther smacking the other two with a mighty X-scissor.

Ohko, taking advantage of the opening, rushed beyond the two and right for Budi with a jump and fist reclined back. Budi quickly placed both his foot down and slid one back in order to form a fighting stance. Then he also unleashed his fist to meet with Ohko's and a shockwave exploded on impact.

However, almost two seconds after the shockwave and before it even gave everyone else a chance to recover from it, Budi was able to see Deino, Marill, and Venonat quickly run pass him along with Wes and Summer.

Budi looked back to his partner, but that distraction allowed Ohko to push through by twisting his fist and uppercut-ing the hand up, staggering the psychic fighter for a second. Ohko quickly spun and did a Dual Chop. The first hit being a reverse Roundhouse kick to the face that was filled with dragonic energy. The second attack was delayed as Ohko allowed Budi to stagger from the first hit and turn his back at him then did a flying jump kick as the second attack, launching the Pokémon a good distance before the evolved Pokémon regained it's composure mid air and landed on one foot as it slid to lessen the impact.

His for cloaks glowed once more before going on the offensive.

The evil clown frowned as he stared at the five people coming his way. He quickly readied his gauntlet and typed something in it.

"Deino, Dragon Pulse!" Wes cried out as the small dragon launched the attack towards the clown.

The gauntlet suddenly lit up and the clown pointed his hand out. "_Activating Protect Move._"

A green dome off protective energy was summoned and nullified the attack.

Wes clicked his tongue. "Figures! So there was a reason you were still so confident: that gauntlet can actually perform Pokémon moves."

Wardeno simply responded by pointing his gauntlet towards the other group not currently fighting his partner. A beep was heard before the electronic voice played again.

"_Thunderbolt._"

The group then ducked to avoid the large blast of electrical energy.

* * *

"Mana?" A small blue Pokémon cried out as she looked above her.

"Wow!" A brunette boy with a red scarf and cap cried out as he viewed the many blasts coming over his bridge. "It looks like one fierce Pokémon battle is going up there."

A blonde haired boy with a green scarf walked up to his friend. "Huh. That's a weird Thunderbolt attack."

The brunette turned to his blonde friend. "How so?"

"It looks… too clean? I mean not all Pokémon perform electric attacks the same way; there's always some wild unpredictable variant to it, but that one… it looked way to orderly, almost mechanical." He explained.

"Oh…" He looked back up where even more blasts came out. "Still, it kinda looks intense for a battle."

As the two and their Pokémon looked at the view with piqued curiosity, inside the cargo area of the ship a group of people were also watching the fight unfold from little sight they could see.

"There's the Skyarrow Bridge. We should be arriving in Castella City soon. Everyone knows what our mission is?"

"We just hit Castella City's Dimension enterprise branch hard!"

"Don't get cocky. They should have some good cargo right about now, so we have to secure those as well."

* * *

Budi leaped toward the large pillars supporting the arc of the upper curves of the bridge. Using his cloaks and psychic ability, Budi was able to climb easily to the top.

Takezo shadowed after him hoping quickly over fast moving trucks, and then wall kicking from two pillars to reach the top. Ohko was a little blunter. He also leaped after Budi, but had to crush the pillars under his grip to lift himself up in an almost leapfrog manner jumping upward only to dent metal after each jump.

"**Darn these wings aren't as good as they used to be…**" Scyther complained bitterly.

Espeon, Umbreon, and Lily came after him. Espeon spoke out, "**Those two are going to need back up!**" He turned to Lily. "**I think I can get you up there.**"

Lily raised her brow. "**How?**"

"**Have you ever wanted to fly?**"

Lily blinked. "**Yeah? It's been one of my wishes—**"

"**Wish granted!**" That was all Espeon screamed before he threw Lilly high up with telekinetic energy.

"**YAAAAHHHHHH!?**" The small grass type screamed.

Ohko looked over to the screaming missile and placed his hand out to easily catch the speeding Pokémon.

"**Bro, that was tight!**" He yelled in excitement and accidentally dropped her to the roof floor.

Lily angrily got back up and glanced down at the pathway below. "**I WILL MURDER YOU ESPEON! I WILL SUFFOCATE YOU IN YOUR SLEEP WITH MY MAGICAL LEAF AND KEEP SHOVING THEM INSIDE YOUR BODY UNTIL YOU IMPLODE HORRIBLY!**"

The lavender Pokémon glanced to his brother. "**Wow. She's way more creative at death threats than you.**"

"**She still has to get in line. I'm first in killing you.**" Umbreon sarcastically noted.

Scyther sighed before shaking his head. "**I swear you young ones get crazier as time goes on.**"

Back on the top, Takezo pointed his blade at his opponent. "**May I suggest channeling that anger towards our enemy?**" Takezo offered to Lily as he stared down the supposed Mega.

Budi, regaining his senses after the odd scene before him, attacked the trio. Lily, still furious, unleashed her wrath by letting loose a rage induced Magical Leaf. Making a multitude of rainbow assorted leaves fly toward him. Budi unleashed all 'six' of his fists and smashed all the pointed leaves into dust in the wind.

However, the second he smashed the last of the attack, Ohko was right there getting ready to launch a powerful side kick. Budi reacted fast, catching the kick by wrapping all four of his cloaks around it, but then Takezo raced from underneath Ohko and quickly did a rising slash into Budi's chin and staggering him, and releasing his hold on Ohko before kicking off his torso to flip back to his teammates.

Budi launched another Psycho Cut at both Takezo and Ohko, but Lily intervened by launching her own Energy Ball technique which only stalled the powerful attack for a few seconds that allowed the two to dodge easily.

"**It's time I ended this.**" Budi exclaimed as suddenly his fist seemed to be coated with some kind of steel armor, then in a flash, punched Ohko out of the roof with a Bullet Punch.

Espeon gasped and quickly used his powers to catch the fighting Pokémon and bring him over to their side.

Meanwhile with Ohko gone, things were looking much worse for Lily and Takezo. Budi launched another Bullet Punch at the unsuspecting Lily, knocking her off as well. He turned to Takezo but was surprised to see him finishing up a Swords Dance.

The white glow from Takezo's blade was barely seen as he poised into another sword fighting stance. Budi, seeing that this one might be trouble, readied his own fighting stance with one leg raised.

The two stared each other down, neither wanting to make the first move without any doubt.

Budi moved first, with an burst of speed from a Bullet Punch attack, but Takezo was able to use Detect in order to avoid the speedy blow by back flipping several times away from his opponent. While mid flip, Takezo started setting up another Swords Dance and finished it as he landed after his fourth cartwheel.

Budi knew that setting up that many Swords Dances would give even him a problem at his powered up state. So he once more launched another Bullet Punch to catch the speeding Pokémon. Takezo quickly used Detect to avoid the first swipe, but then Budi's other hand solidified in metallic coating and released another quick Bullet Punch right after the first one. Since Detect had already been used, the second attack hit Takezo square in the face and sent him flying back a good distance.

Takezo still held strong, and was able to land and slid to try and cancel the momentum of the attack, but the pain was quite staggering since it was direct hit.

Budi smiled since all he had to do was keep spamming the speed boosting attack to overwhelm his opponent before he could unleash a finishing attack.

"**Yo! Ya think you can just knock me down and be done with that!?**"

Budi turned to that voice, but only saw a close up of a fist.

{A few minutes ago…}

"**I got her!**" Espeon cried out as he caught Lily.

"**I still hate you!**" She cried before she noticed it was just him and Ohko. "**Wait, where are the others?**"

"**I stayed here watching you guys, but the others went to get Anto off that other guy.**" Espeon explained.

"**We gotta get back up there yo! That ain't no way I'm letting that odd clown smack me down and keep me here!**" Ohko told the psychic.

"**You're kind of heavy. Unless you want to climb back up there again, there's nothing I can do but toss Lily back there and start a game of Ping Pong with him.**" He said as he glanced to Lily.

Lily angrily stormed. "**I'm surrounded by psychos!**"

"**What? That ain't my type. I'm fighting type remember?**" Ohko told her.

"**Great. Guys are either stupid or sociopathic. What the heck Arceus? What have women ever done to incur such a curse?**" Lily whined before ducking at in coming water attack.

"**Enough meta on Gender relationships,**" Espeon called out. "**We're in the middle of a rescue operation. If that fighting type beats Takezo, dividing them in the first place will be for nothing! We all know what happens when a competent trainer and a powerful Pokémon get together don't we? Let's not let out opponents have that!**"

"**Then launch me back up there! I can't climb back up that fast!**" Ohko pointed up to where Takezo was avoiding Medicham's blows.

"**I told you you're too heavy!**" Espeon repeated.

Ohko looked to Lily. "**Then you help!**"

"**Ohko, I have known you for only a few hours, and I already realize that you're not the sharpest knife in the tool shed. I'm not a psychic type!**"

"**Yea, but you got those fancy rainbow leaves that follow wherever ya want them to, ight? Just use that with pink cat's **(Espeon: **I'm lavender!**)** power to lift me up there!**" Ohko clenched his fists.

The two special attackers looked at each other. A Magical Leaf combined with a Confusion could work, but they were slightly surprised that Ohko was the one that thought of this since he seems to have a problem remembering there is more than one gender.

"**Fine,**" Lily stated as she summoned a large swarm of mystic leaves, "**Takezo is the one of the few Pokémon here I tolerate anyway.**"

Espeon and Lily's eye glowed as they focused on Ohko before glancing towards Medciham. The colored leaves all gathered below Ohko and were starting to have a heavy blue outline signifying the psychic powers were being added in.

Soon, the leaves all seemed to form a catapult that was solidified by telekinetic energy and looked to be aimed towards Budi.

They both thought of the same thing at the same time:

Hitting that punk hard.

And Ohko was off blasting not unlike a rocket.

Using the amazing momentum form the launch, Ohko threw back his fist and yelled out, "**Yo! Ya think you can just knock me down and be done with that!?**"

Budi was distracted for one moment and then was decked square in the face by Ohko's punch then launched off the roof.

While it did hurt, Budi recovered from the impact and quickly combined all of his cloaks to extend and warp around a large metal cable part of the roof and use that to slingshot himself back into the roof with Takezo and Ohko.

"**That's it!**" Budi cried angrily as pieces of rocks were slowly starting to levitate from psychic power. All four of his cloaks formed into fists and started glowing in several different colors, each signifying different typed attacks in each one. "**No more play time! I'm killing you all and throwing your bodies into the sea!**"

Takezo, walked slightly limping beside Ohko. "**I appreciate the assist.**"

"**No prob, but how we gonna handle this?**"

Takezo readied his blade. "**I still have one plan left, but you may need to face him alone for a bit.**"

Ohko readied his fighting stance. "**Hey, anything is better than dying at this rate.**"

That was all they could get in before Budi's heavy assault on the two martial artists began.

{Back at the Bridge}

Wes was rather frustrated that they could not even get close to the clown. Whenever they would try to, the professional clown would activate a Pokémon move from his gauntlet, like Teleport, Reflect, Thunderbolt on the Marill, Magic Coat on Venonat's Sleeping Powder, and even Dazzling Gleam on his Deino. Thankfully, Umbreon and Scyther came back to help, but after he easily took down the first three Pokémon, nothing seemed to get through.

"Hold still so I can hit you!" Wardeno cried as he launched Scald attacks towards the group.

Summer and Tracey jinked to avoid the blast of boiling water, but they found themselves farther away from getting closer to Anto.

Summer also seemed annoyed on how to get past that machine. Then an idea hit her.

"Wes!" She quickly cried out to the boy.

"What?"

"Do that thing you did against the Cofagrigus!" She yelled before aiming her hand towards Wardeno.

Wes' brow was raised at the odd sentence. What did she—Wes immediately understood what she was trying to say.

Wardeno leered at the Ranger, something was coming.

But he was surprised to see her launch her Capture Disc at him.

Not wanting to risk anything, he activated his gauntlet and made the disc hit a telekinetic wall of Reflect. But the Disc rolled along the wall and circled behind him before launching itself at him again. Wardeno recalibrated his gauntlet and this time made a Leaf Blade shoot out of his weapon which allowed him to slash and bat away the flying disc with a horizontal swing.

No sooner than he did that, he felt something clinging on to his gauntlet and almost touching his skin.

He looked back and saw the kid's Umbreon chomping hard on the now malfunctioning device with a bite attack.

"Crap!" He cried as he tried to remove the creature, but as he did, Anto's body fell of his other shoulder and made him fall into the ground.

Wes smiled and spoke out loud, "Not bad, nerd." It was the same trick they had used agasint team Plasma where they would distract the opponent while the real Pokémon would sneak up and launch the finishing blow.

"Thanks, I knew you would—are you still calling me that!?" She snapped her head back at him.

Wardeno tried to re grab Anto, but backed away as soon as Scyther made a Slash for him and got between them.

"Surrender!" Tracey yelled out. "You're defeated!"

"Not quite!" Wardeno gritted. "Once Budi comes and beats your Pokémon, I'll order him to—"

He was interrupted with _a large tear of dark energy _parting the sky above them_._

{A while ago.}

Ohko dodged a winding side punch and quickly countered a punch from Budi with one of his own. The attacks clashed, but Ohko followed it up by attempting to crescent kick him. However, he didn't really learn from last time and Budi's four cloaks quickly wrapped around his leg and allowed Budi to throw him away. Ohko crashed landed on the connecting archway at the very top of the bridge and slid until his head hit the brick fence.

Budi followed him, fist gathering up psychic energy and stalking towards the weakened Ohko.

Then he remembered something.

Where was the small swordsman?

Ohko got back up and charged a Reversal towards his opponent. Budi clicked his tongue and quickly sent his cloaks to ensnare his prey. He only needed three of his cloaks since Ohko only had three limbs.

Budi made Ohko come closer to him. "**Wow. You fight well for a cripple. I almost feel bad about killing you. Key word was 'almost'.**"

Budi threw back his fist and launched a Drain Punch right for Ohko's stomach. The attack harmed the fighting type, but his pain only got worse as time went on.

"**Funny thing about Drain Punch. If you stay too long on contact, it can drain all of your life force. Ain't that a fun fact?**" Budi coldly stated as he Ohko's struggling became weaker and weaker with each second.

"**Unhand my friend!**"

Budi turned around to see a very ticked off Takezo walking calmly toward him.

Budi tossed away Ohko's near unconscious body and strode toward the normal type with renewed vigor he had stolen from Ohko.

"**I apologize profusely for taking too long Ohko.**" Takezo aimed his voiced at his fallen ally.

"**Just… kick… his… butt…**" Ohko gasped weakly as he rose out his one hand and showed a thumbs-up sign.

Takezo nodded before pulling his blade behind his waist.

"**How cute, but you don't stand a chance against me now. I'm at full power again, and you're on your last legs.**" Budi taunted as he launched himself with a Bullet Punch with all six of his fist charged with metallic coating.

Takezo closed his eyes for one second and opened them up with blue energy, revealing another Detect. However, this one was different. Takezo was using Detect for only one fraction of a second to dodge the blow that would reach him first. Angling himself rightly, he let lose an Umbra Shred attack after three more set ups of Swords Dance he completed from Ohko buying him time, and using his 30% power boost from his Analytic ability.

Needless to say, the amount of boosts Takezo built up showed.

That large tear in the sky filled with dark energy was certainly hard to miss.

* * *

"Whoa! What was that!?" The red scarf kid cried out.

"I-I don't know. I've never seen an attack like that before!" His green scarf counterpart answered.

Their small Pokémon looked curiously as the large attack seemed to fade.

* * *

"What was that!?" Wardeno cried out in shock. His eyes only widened when he saw his Medicham back to normal and falling down from the sky. He quickly jumped back, took out his Poké Ball and recalled his partner before anything else could happen.

He greeted his teeth angrily and stared at the group of kids. "You'll pay for this…" With that, he slammed his fist into his gauntlet causing one last spark and he was gone in a Teleport.

Tracey quickly ran for Anto. He sighed in relief to see that he was just unconscious.

"What the heck was that?" Tracey gasped as that seemingly random attack was over with.

Wes sighed and viewed the area around him. "… A whole new trouble that's what…"

The last of the conscious group was surprised to hear a voice of an old man call out from above.

"Hey! You youngsters! Get me down from—my beautiful bridge! What happened to you!?"

"I thought this was finally over…" Summer sighed dejectedly.

{Later.}

The old man was apparently a Janitor named Geoff. He and his two Pokémon were cleaning the bridge as usual, until a strange man came up to him. Suddenly, his Pokémon attacked him and his two Pokémon, Trubbish and Cinccino. It moved far too expertly and knocked all three of them easily. Apparently, he was able to hide and trap them inside a brick cube on top of the bridge. They were able to escape when Takezo unleashed his powerful slash and smashed the Medicham through their prison.

He and his Pokémon, while horrified at the dirt and damage on the bridge, thanked the group by helping the injured into the next city's Pokémon center.

However, while entering the city, no one noticed how seemingly overpopulated the crowds of people were, even for a large metropolitan area such as Castelia City.

Nor did any of them hear or notice the talks about the upcoming festival in Nimbasa City.

Perhaps if they did…

Bah. That is not important right now.

After a tiring day of traveling and fighting, the group all earned their well deserved rest.

After all, the madness would only continue later on.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Sorry this one is late. Got some other story projects being worked on.**

**This one was more action packed than some other chapters, but I feel there might have been a little too much of that recently.**

**Sadly, there isn't much of a plan to slow things down (actually there is, but the action picks up again right after.) so I hope that it's exciting at least.**

**Now, last chapter I told you guys that something interesting was coming up soon.**

**And by soon I mean way later ish.**

**But if you guys have the patience, I present to you…**

**An OC crossover event!**

**I did one of these before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have some better ideas now that I actually have practice and experience form another old story that I really should update. *Coughs***

**So how about it? **

**Many people do this already, but for a writer such as myself, it's insanely fun to have other people mash stories together. And it usually comes out well… sorta… I promise to put a lot of planning into this!**

**If you want your OC to star in this little story, then here are the rules.**

**Numero Uno: Identity!**

**-For this part you simply put…**

**Name.**

**Age.**

**Gender.**

**Description of Appearance.**

**Short Intro Summary explaining who and what your character is doing and which part of their journey do you want them to be written as? Basically telling me their story, so I can understand how to write them better. Be descriptive as possible! The more descriptive you are, the higher your chances of being chosen.**

**(You may be allowed to tell more about them to me if you wish. Like their entire adventure and such.)**

**(Also, if they have their own traveling partner, then you may be allowed to include them as well, but they have to have the same information as the Main OC and maybe explain how they met.)**

**2****nd**** part you need: Pokémon (Duh.)**

**-This one is straight forward but…**

**Explain if you have 1 to 6 Pokémon and list them with their moves and abilities if you want.**

**You can also include their personalities and if they can 'talk' somehow to your character.**

**Also, as tempting as is, I highly recommend not using legendaries.**

**Don't act like this doesn't need an explanation: You know why.**

**(Also, I will allow Psychic and Aura users, but please keep the ability to use powers on other humans and Pokémon toned down. A vast majority of people do not like Mary/Gary Sues. Plus I find it hard to write them sometimes.)**

**3: There is a limit.**

**Since Pokémon worlds are expansive, I'm going to try to limit this to Five OCs from different people.**

**That doesn't mean that if you submit and don't get chosen, you don't have a chance of being seen in this story. Heck no! the first five chosen will be in the first Arc. Later on and afterwards, your OC may have a Cameo or be seen in the League Tournament in this story, so there always a chance of them being seen.**

**HOWEVER.**

**You need to remember that this takes time, which is why I'm starting to take this right now so I can plan better for this later. (Also we all have lives, so the updates may not be as stable as we wish it was. That doesn't mean I won't try though.)**

**Note that if you submit to me your OCs, chances are you might not be seeing them until some very later time if they fit with the story. Just giving you a fair warning.**

**But, if you're characters are from another story, then I would be glad to read it and give some of my thoughts on it. We could also help each other out.**

**4th step is very important.**

**-This is VERY important. (Double emphasis exists for a reason!)**

**I ****do not**** want you to post all this information in a ****review****.**

**Please, for the love of (which ever religious deity here), do not post the information into the Review section! I read those on how to change my stories!**

**Well that's it.**

**If you want to join in, follow those instructions. The earlier you send your Application, the more time I have for planning your character to come in.**

**Are you hyped? Or do you see an upcoming trainwreck?**

**Find out next time on… This!**

**Thanks for reading.**


	13. Ep 13: Dramatic Change

**{Author's Note}**

**Whoo-whee! This chapter was fun to write, but it's insanely more action packed than the last chapter!**

**If you thought the fight between Mega Medicham was brutal, this one will make that seem like the most boring battle ever!**

**A lot of things happen here, so hold on tight because this is going to be a bumpy ride!**

* * *

Ep 13: Lucky Number.

Anto found himself waking up in a beach.

The same beach he saw in his dreams.

So… he wasn't awake; he was in a dream again.

But why would he wake up into a dream while he is sleeping? Was he even sleeping in the first place or did he just wake up from being asleep somehow? How would waking up in a dream from falling asleep constitute as 'waking up' since he was still 'asleep' in a dream?

Ouch. You don't usually get headaches in a dream.

Then again the last thing he remembered was pain from an odd clown.

What exactly happened?

"**Ah, welcome back human.**"

Anto looked behind him and saw Hoopa reclined on a bent tropical tree and eating a pineapple.

"**The moment you left, this plane went under some kind of lock down. Been trapped here for what? Two minutes to you humans? Meh at least this place isn't that bad. But that's one sophisticated protection spell.**"

"Spell?" Anto repeated in curiosity.

Hoopa swallowed his snack before floating over. "**Yep magic. Powerful one to. Most of all, something I haven't seen yet.**"

Anto shook his head. "That can't be right! I was found in some fancy machine and… some kind of high tech multibillion enterprise! Where did magic come in?"

Hoopa summoned another fruit into his hand by summoning a ring and making a papaya fall out into his palm. "**Dude, this place is an artificial dimension. I already told you coming here was hard enough on my own.**"

Anto stared incredulously at the Pokémon. He tried to wrap his head around this, but just felt another headache. "Oh this isn't making any sense…"

"**Well you are mortal. Dimension and alternate realities tend to be a little beyond your comprehensions.**" Hoopa added in. "**Still, with you here, maybe now I can find more about this place.**" He finished his next snack before tossing it into the sea.

Anto blinked at what he said. He was about to ask what he meant, but then he started to think. Hoopa had just mentioned that this so called 'dimension' locked down when he left and trapped him. Now that he has returned, maybe they could actually explore this place. After all, Anto had only been at the beach part of this island all the times he's been here. Maybe he should help Hoopa simply because he also wanted answers to this—maybe for different reasons but their interests were aligned.

Anto sighed. "So where do we start?"

Hoopa smiled, obviously impressed at how the human in front of him seemed to react to his attitude without much annoying complaints, and how he seemed to quickly pick up on the logic behind his whims. Those stupid scientists believed he was just some idiot—look at them right now. "**Well this island is pretty small, but like I said it's artificial.**"

Anto let that sink in for a second and placed his hand on his chin. "If it's artificial… does that mean someone wanted this to be a small tropical island?"

"**Ha! Yes! I was thinking that too while I was trapped here. So human, what do beaches mean to you?**"

"My name is Anto. And second, I don't actually know. I have amnesia." He explained.

Hoopa's expression turned solemn. He also seemed to think hard about this next part. "**That's weird. Hmm, an amnesiac suddenly appearing and disappearing in this artificial pocket dimension… This just more curious by the second,**" His childish grin returned. "**Consider me hooked!**" He turned his gaze to Anto and pointed at him. "**You, Human!**"

"You're not going to care about my name aren't you?" Anto commented in.

Hoopa seemed to ignore him and continued on. "**You're obviously the key to unlocking what treasures are hidden here! So until I find what I'm looking for, you'll have to stay!**"

Anto shrugged. Not like he could do anything else in this dream. Hoopa seemed harmless enough to play along with anyway.

Hoopa floated past him and pointed towards the center of the island. "**First off, into the woods!**" He exclaimed excitedly before flying in.

Anto sighed as he started to walk after the levitating Pokémon.

"Will you play a song for me?"

Anto stopped dead in his tracks before he reached the forest. He whipped his head and saw a silhouette of a girl in the distance.

"S…Sk…" Anto didn't understand. Something was coming out of his mouth. Something he didn't recognize. Why did that voice make his heart go through so many emotions like happiness, sorrow, pain, regret, joy, and other feelings? Why was his mouth seemingly choking on something about to be said?

"**Crap! Hey! Don't disappear on me now! You just got here!**" The distant voice of Hoopa cried out.

But it was for naught. Anto felt himself grow dizzy and faded back into black.

* * *

[?]

I remember I was crying once, I didn't know why, but I was crying. I was four years old and I was crying my eyes out in my own home living room.

That's when my grampa walked in. It was a rare sight to see him actually awake in the house. My parents were at work and he and I were the only ones here.

"Now, what's wrong, sport?" Despite being so old, so wrinkly, I always liked Grampa. The look in his eyes almost made me think he was some cool kid trapped in an old man's body, but boy was he proud of that old body of his that smelled weird sometimes.

"The kids made fun of me… they called me weirdo!"

"Ouch, the dreaded 'weirdo' insult. How horrible to see they haven't changed that. So why did they call you that?"

The young boy in my memory took out a blue harmonica. "They didn't like what I was playing!"

Grampa smiled. He was always good at that. He put his cane down and sat on the couch, before motioning to my younger self to sit down with him.

"Come here kid, I want to tell you the secret of the universe…" He spoke to me like an angel about the truth of reality. I dried my tears for a second and listened closely to him, I hung on his every word. "Nobody is perfect."

"Nobody is perfect?" I sniffed once before repeating him.

"Did you think I was born this beautiful?" The old man chuckled heartily as he pulled on one of his wrinkles, making his grandson smile. "Listen, sport, no one starts off the best of the best, even those so called talented people. Talent can only get one so far, but work and dedication brings us all the way. I'm going to tell ya something, and its way more important than the secret of the Universe I just told ya: You're going to **be** amazing, sport. You'll be the best damn harmonica player in the world or whatever thing you want to be. You'll be the greatest thing since the roller blades back in my day!" He stopped for a minute and looked into my eyes with a spark in his eyes I never seen before… or ever saw again. "… And you want to know why?"

"Why Grampa?"

His eyes betrayed his entire body, it was so full of life, so sure of everything, and as if filled with the knowledge of the cosmos. "Because you are destined for the stars, sport. I've seen it the moment I first laid eyes on ya, but you need to remember one thing. One crucial thing that applies to every single thing you will ever do: Never, ever, EVER… give up."

He was right. I eventually became an amazing harmonica player and musician. My only regret was that Grampa never got to see me perform my first piano piece. He should have seen it, I rocked the stage… then my parents told me he did see it, he was telling everyone in the great beyond how amazing his grandson was.

[?]

* * *

He opened his eyes to see a familiar sight: an eerily familiar ceiling.

"**Everyone, he has awakened!**"

Anto tilted his head to see Takezo sitting down with his legs folded. His head was turned around as he called out to someone.

"Anto! Oh thank goodness!" Summer called out as she, Tracey, and Wes came up to him along with some old man he never met.

"Are you alright?" Tracey asked him.

"_Uhh… did anyone get the plate number of that car that hit me?_" Anto dizzily thought out.

Wes smirked. "Actually it was a clown. An evil clown. Good thing no one here has a fear of those things."

The old man smiled nervously at the amnesiac. "You must be that really strange, psychopathic amnesiac then?"

Anto wondered why the old man called him that before questioningly glancing over to his supposed friends then saw two of them seemingly direct their gaze at the blue clad, tanned Snagger.

"Basically, we told him everything while you were having your beauty sleep." Wes deadpanned before introducing the strange man. "By the way, his name is Geoff. He was a janitor in Skyarrow Bridge we damaged."

"Do you kids have any idea how much happened to me over the past two days!?" Geoff whined to them exasperatedly before calming himself down with a sigh. "But then again, thirty years of cleaning a bridge those have its share of strange moments. Even though this one takes the cake!"

"And Eats it!" Summer added in excitedly before everyone looked at her weirdly. "What? Don't get it? … Ben showed me this—never mind."

Anto glanced over the place around him a bit more. He observed how he looked to be in a Pokémon Center room not unlike how he first woke up in the beginning of his journey. He focused his sight beyond his human friends to see all their Pokémon behind them, Takezo and Espeon were also out.

A little unsure, but willing to try, Anto looked over to the man. "_So you even know about this?_"

Geoff flinched at the sound of a voice in his head, but to his credit was able to recompose himself easily. "Now that is weird… but this simply means you youngsters were telling the truth," His expression turned somber before he sighed again. "… I've stayed here long enough. I think it's time I got back to cleaning up the bridge, it'll be long, but at least that'll give me time to digest this."

"O-Oh! Thank you again for helping us with Anto!" Summer thanked him before she and Tracey bowed in respect.

Geoff scoffed before he left the room with his two Pokémon. "Feh! Life was much simpler as janitor." He grunted lightly.

Wes scoffed and Anto smiled at that as he left.

As soon as he left; however, things turned serious.

"We should probably talk about that now," Wes started off. "It looks like this Dimension Enterprise is really after Anto."

"His life is in danger! We should keep him with the authorities!" Summer voiced in.

Wes turned to her. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"What are you talking about?! People just tried to kidnap him! He needs to be moved to a safer place!" Summer reasoned.

Wes folded his arms as he explained his reasoning. "Did you pay attention to that fight we had? That was just _one_ guy and _one_ Pokémon. And we still were almost overwhelmed! No offense to 'The Man' and all, but Dimension Enterprise has done an amazing job at keeping its public image squeaky clean, which means I'm willing to bet they have some agents in the higher up places because of their standing as a trade route superpower. After all, I only knew about them because I was part of the bad guys. You didn't even know they had dark side until I told you. Who knows how far their slimy claws reach?"

Summer, and indirectly Tracey, didn't think about that. It was true they had recently just heard of Dimension Enterprise's black market agenda, but they had only realized it when Wes confirmed it for them. Despite being a major company, it was very quiet in humbly doing its job while slowly gaining power over time. There was a high chance that since it secretly had so many ties to other places, it would secretly place people in strategic places of their choosing.

"Then… what do we do?" Tracey voiced out.

"_Don't I get a say in any of this?_"

Everyone turned to Anto who gave them all a casual expression.

"_Thanks Espeon. OK, from what bits I could gather, the clown and his terrible fortune-telling psychic Pokémon almost kidnapped me and hurt you guys. Right?_"

Wes nodded silently, Summer looked kind of nervous, and Tracey seemed a little unsure of where this was going. "… Yes, but—"

"_Tracey, sorry for interrupting, but I'm not done. If there really is nothing we can do, let's just go back to the original plan: me entering the league and getting more worldwide recognition._"

Tracey and Summer's eyes widened at that statement while Wes honestly looked confused.

"What?!" Summer cried out in shock. "Anto, there are people after you. You aren't safe! Why would you continue with the league challenge?"

"_I think that's a better reason __to__ do the challenge._ _ Here's how I see it: if I can get into the league that would mean that people would recognize me as a contender. However, if Dimension Enterprise tries to steal me during my challenge, the entire world will notice the odd disappearance of one contestant, which might lead into a police investigation that would find a trail of crumbs leading to them. Publicity is apparently my ally in this._"

Wes recalled back in the bridge when Wardeno claimed he had to get rid of them simply knowing that Anto was a part of Dimension Enterprise. "You're right. When you were caught, he actually tried to get rid of us when I called him out on being an agent from Dimension Enterprise. If you get into the league, they can't touch you without revealing themselves."

"Whoa! Hold up!" Tracey exclaimed. "The league is still quite some time before it even comes up! Don't you think that they will continue to try and take you during that time?"

"_Your original plan still works, Tracey. Going to the league implies that we have to get stronger. The more gym battles we fight, the more experienced and stronger we become. Then we'll have a better chance at surviving the next several attacks and potentially repel them rather than just sitting on my butt and waiting for them to go away._"

"He's got another point there, Headband," Wes admitted thoughtfully. "We stand a better chance at stopping them ourselves. Besides, who would believe us in hiding away Anto because some poorly dressed clown is after him? And remember where we are? Castelia City, there's an actual branch of the company here. We might be able to find some answers if we sneak get in there."

Everyone turned to the Snagger with a slightly confused look on their face.

"Sneak in? What do you mean?" Tracey inquired.

Wes smiled mischievously then aimed his gaze to Summer. "Looks like being under house arrest _actually _has perks."

Summer felt herself shiver.

* * *

The four unlikely people later found themselves nearby the docks. Once more, the building branch of Dimension Enterprise was not designed to stand out. Compared to the many towering skyscrapers Castelia City had, this one was smaller since it only had at most fifteen floors. Oddly enough though, it was one of the few tall buildings that were so close to the ports. In fact, it was literally next door to its own warehouse in a private port near the coast of Castelia City.

"Is this the place?" Anto asked through sign language.

Summer nodded. "Yeah. This is the place…" She then sighed. "Wes this is a horrible idea."

"I have to agree with Summer on this one. This is reckless and dangerous! We might get arrested… again!" Tracey voiced out.

"You guys need to calm down, if you doubt the plan, it will fail. You gotta believe in yourself and in the lie." Wes smoothly explained.

Anto grabbed everyone's attention by making sign language again that said, "If I get into Jail a second time, I demand to be in solo cell! I am not playing Strip Poker again!"

Everyone was actually impressed with both Anto and themselves for actually knowing and recognizing the hand sign language for 'strip poker'.

"… Is that where you got your harmonica?" Tracey inquired.

Anto just pointed ahead and silently demanded that they go in already.

Summer refused. "I could get fired if I do this!"

Wes sighed dejectedly. "Wasn't you who told me while Anto was still unconscious that this Mega Evolution could help in finding your missing friends? We all talked about how similar the Medicham and Absol were in being amazingly strong. There has to be a connection to them, and the only way is through Dimension Enterprise. And how do we get in? By you claiming that there's a potential attack from Team Plasma, and getting them to let us investigate their docks." He went over the plan.

Summer crossed her arms. "I'm telling you this is a bad idea! We could just ask for their assistance!"

"But what if some of them are spies? They could report it to their higher ups!"

Tracey noticed something of interest. "Uh guys? Where did Anto go?" He said which made the arguing two turn their heads at the empty space of air the mute was standing just a few seconds ago.

The three snapped their heads to the main entrance where they saw Anto already in front of a desk man who was explaining something to him with a smile. Anto seemed to be talking to him with his notebook and the man simply nodded and smiled before the two walked out of the building.

They were all still stunned as the employer greeted them all with a smile. "Hello, my name is Lawrence, and I will be your tour guide for today!"

The three glanced to Anto, who was standing behind the man holding up his notebook that said, "And this is why you let me do the 'talking'."

Told by a mute.

Despite the amazing life of all three people, that easily placed as the top weirdest thing to ever happen to them.

* * *

[Elsewhere.]

"Mam? I don't understand, why are we doing this _during _the day? Wouldn't it make sense to do this during the night?"

"Are you kidding me? If we attack with a loud enough explosion during the day, all those busybees swarming the streets of Castelia will panic like a hive of startled Combees. The police will be overwhelmed trying to calm down the public and have trouble getting to us." The superior reasoned cruelly before glaring demonic daggers back at the subordinate. "Question me again and you will learn the consequences. Do I make myself clear?"

"Ye-yes…"

"Excellent. Prepare the bombs. We have reason to believe that some members of the Cult of Perfection are also here, so kill them without mercy."

* * *

[Returning to the main four…]

The four of them continued to follow the attendant explaining the first few public floors and breifly going over the basic information behind their company. "Dimension Enterprise is a company that has lasted forty years ago by founder, Kard Dimension, and deceased father of our current Ceo, Sied Dimension. He was actually the son of a fisherman merchant who…"

Wes zoned out of the conversation as he viewed the Warehouse from the windows he was passing. They were on the second floor, so he was able to get a better view he noticed some of the cargo Boats nearby near the warehouse docks and noticed something weird. He quietly placed his glasses on and stared at the name of the boat. Thankfully, he had worked on these lenses for quite some time, not only allowing him to see better at nights at the dessert, but there was a side component that allowed him to adjust his lenses to zoom in, albeit not as good as regular binoculars, but they still help zoom in on moderately far away objects. He then was able to spot the flag on the cargo ship and it didn't look Unovan. In fact, he didn't recognize that flag symbol before.

But he did see that there were people moving from the Cargo Ship into the warehouse.

Then Wes seemingly focused on something of interest.

Did one of those shipping crates just jump by itself? Why is chained and so tightly secured? And why are the people around it wearing lab coats?

"By the way," Wes called out, surprising the attendant. "You guys make shipments throughout the world right?"

"Ah, yes, our shipping routes across the globe twenty four seven. However, we have recently started a proper branch here in the Unova Region." Lawrence answered.

"So who is that boat right now? I don't recognize the symbol." Wes casually asked as he feigned curiosity and pointed over to the boat that could be seen in their view.

"Oh! They are from a far away region that isn't known very well. It's our shipment from the Torren Region."

"Torren Region?" Summer cried out in surprise. "I know that place! That's were retired Pokémon Ranger, Xavier lives!"

"I heard rumors about it being a very dangerous place to live," Tracey added in. "If you thought Team Rocket and others were bad, they say Torren Region has five crazy organizations plaguing them!"

"I think they've recently had an era of peace." Lawrence explained as he closed his eyes and lifted his finger up. "Most of the organizations had been defeated by that region's strongest trainer."

Wes whistled at the impressive idea. "Are you telling me one man undid over several organizations by himself?"

Lawrence shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't know much about Torren Region's culture or history. I don't know myself, so I can't answer that question."

Anto looked back to the warehouse. It was then he noticed something oddly blue sticking out. Actually, it was multiple blue objects, no, people. They dressed weirdly, almost Team Plasma weird.

…

Anto quickly got Summer's attention and wrote something down for her to read out.

"Huh?" Summer asked as she read the message. "Um, from what you do know, are there any rumors saying that these organizations wear weird clothes?"

Lawrence thought about it a bit. "I think so. All previous, historic teams have had uniforms," He didn't notice Wes roll his eyes as he said this. "But the ones in Torren are extra weird from what I heard. I don't know the details, but they almost look like weird fashion models—the bad kind."

Wes then glanced over to Anto, then flowed the mute's gaze towards the nearby warehouse. He put his Visor back on and adjusted them to zoom in a bit. His eyes widened as he saw the group of people, and what they were _arming_ before running away and ducking hard under covers.

Wes hurriedly reached for his Poké Ball then screamed desperately. "Espeon! Reflect! Full Power!"

Before anyone could even react to Wes' sudden action, they were interrupted by a deafening boom.

* * *

{Highly Recommended Music: Pacific Rim Theme "Epic Rock" Cover/Remix (Little V)}

"Set out your Pokémon! We have fifteen minutes to gather as many left over goods we can find! Then we steal the Cargo ship and make our leave!" The leader of the Bombers cried out.

Suddenly, the people stopped their advancement when they saw figures seemingly come out of the smoke.

"Well if it isn't the Abyssal Cult? How, irksome this is if you had followed us all the way from The Torren Region." A man wearing an undamaged lab coat commented out loud as he was followed by a shiny Alakazam. Soon after, more rather intimidating scientists stepped away from the flames, facing the supposed blue wearing cultists with calculating coldness.

The commander of the Abyssal Cult walked forward. "We should say the same to you. What? Is Torren getting too crowded for you Cult of Perfection that you have to move somewhere else?"

The commander of the Cult of Perfection removed his glasses and rubbed them as he spoke out. "How small minded. We were given an opportunity to increase our power and potentially expand our reach, and we took it. You're obviously here to mooch of our success. A rudimentary tactic, but it at least makes sense." He then placed his glasses back on, a shine of light reflecting on it before his glasses showed the see-through reflection of the opposing leader. "Unfortunately, you attempting to blast us to kingdom come, has obviously failed, and despite how I appear, I am very, very **ticked **off."

"Oh boohoo." The blue leader mockingly told them. "If that explosion didn't kill you, we'll just do it ourselves! Attack!" The leader cried before throwing out a Poké Ball that held a Shiny Greninja and the subordinates attacking in following.

The scientist sighed as he fixed his glasses. His fellow cultists summoned their own Pokémon to counter the opposing team. "Women. Why are they so annoying?" He called out before he sent his Alakazam versus her Greninja.

[The Wheel Of Fate is turning… Heaven or Hell?! Two—One—Let's Rock!]

The first thing Anto did when wake up was clench his teeth. His ears were ringing and his head was aching all kinds of pain. His eyes could only see blobs and bits of blurry colors. What happened? The last thing he remembered was Wes calling out Espeon and then telling him to…

"…p!"

His head started pulling himself back together, the blurry visions he was seeing stared making more sense. As he came together, he felt his skin tinge at intense heat around him. Finally, he realized something, the floor was on fire.

"Wake up, mute! Dang it, wake up, Anto!" Wes' voice screamed.

Anto slowly got back up, Wes was helping him up and he was getting a better look at the room around him. Marill was desperately trying to douse the flames around them, and the whole side of the wall they were in looked terrible and blasted to oblivion, and was burned to the point that the once vibrant and welcoming halls looked ashy, gray, and devoid of life.

Tracey seemed to be looking after the fallen Lawrence who had some bad looking horrible injury, and Summer was nowhere to be seen.

"_Wh-what happened?_" Anto mentally called out, seeing Espeon and Umbreon nearby.

"A bomb happened." Anto took a better look at Wes, he looked fine, but he was slightly covered in soot and ash from an apparent explosion. "Espeon was able to hold out a powerful enough Reflect to avoid us dying, but the impact of it hitting the building still caused problems as you can plainly see. Summer and Headband's Scyther went out to help evacuate any survivors and injuries. I stayed to wake you up. You need to see what happened to the warehouse." He said with grim urgency.

Anto stared out the large gaping hole out of the building and was horrified at the sight.

There seemed to be two teams, one wearing blue, and a bunch of scientists duke-ing it out in one of the most brutal Pokémon fights they had ever seen.

Nearby, things were exploding around them, and there looked to be cages that were dent and destroyed merchandise scattered, burned, or destroyed. And Anto felt sick as he saw even some charred up bodies.

It almost looked like… a war.

"We need to stop them." Wes clenched his fist. Anto felt Wes determination. He left his previous life to avoid this, not see it all over again. Anto reached for his Pokémon and summoned all of them.

"**By Arceus…**" Takezo cried out in sheer disbelief.

"**I… I don't think this is one fight I wanna participate in.**" Ohko hesitantly started, not having that usual pumped up attitude.

"**Sorry guys, welcome to our life.**" Umbreon darkly put.

"**But it's no longer our life, and we're putting a stop to it. We need your help.**" Espeon told everyone.

"**Wait,**" Lilly glanced between them. "**It's just going to be the six of us against all of them?!**"

Wes looked at her. "No. We're going to hold them off and stem the damages. At least until the police arrive and arrest those idiots. We need to hurry, I think both sides are out for blood."

Anto nodded in agreement before remembering they were still on the second floor. He glanced to Espeon and Lily. "_Lily, Espeon, how good are you two at carrying multiple objects?_"

Wes looked back at Anto. "What do you mean?"

Anto pointed ahead to the large wall, or lack off, in front of them. "_The fastest way down there has been opened for us_."

"**I can carry everyone, even my brother, if Lily can pile up a platform of her Magical Leaf.**" Espeon added in to which everyone turned to the grass type already summoning the mystic controlled attacked into forming a platform for all of them.

"**Done, get on!**" Lilly cried out as she and the others jumped on and both Lily and Espeon controlled the platform to land on the ground fast but safe.

When they got down, the first thing they saw was a Machoke continuously punching an already knocked out Seaking, almost as if he was trying to kill it.

Takezo and Ohko burst off, both blind-siding the fighting type into a ruined wall and having it crashed on top of him.

"**Are they mad?! Are these barbarian trying to kill one another?!**" Takezo screamed out checking the fallen fish Pokémon. It was injured horribly, but it appeared it would live to flop another day.

"It looks like it. We have no choice, everyone, we're going to have to use the Dual moves, use all of yours sparingly since we can't use them as much, but use them to take out these suckers!" Wes cried out. "Anto, I'm going to trust you to handle the side of the fight near some of the ruined merchandise, I'm heading for the fighting heading towards the boat!"

"_Good Luck, Wes._" Anto told him before he and his three Pokémon were making their way.

Wes glanced around and spotted a broken barrel of empty Ultra Balls. He walked over to them and looked at his Snag Machine.

"… Sorry, Nerd. I'm breaking my promise." He told himself as he gathered a dozen of them or so and retracted them back into their smaller forms. He charged one up. "Come one Umbreon, Espeon, we have murders to beat up."

* * *

Meanwhile, Summer ran the halls with Scyther close behind her. They had just helped as much people as they could from the upper floors by having Scyther cut through the debris trapping and crushing some people. They were able to help security into evacuating the other workers as much as possible, and when Summer was able to get the head officer organized in the evacuation, she and Scyther went towards the explosion.

She was horrified at the sight of the ground zero, and was forced to put her hand on her mouth to cover the ash and smoke from entering her lungs. She remembered back awhile ago, Espeon seemed to keep the air around them fresh by trapping the untouched air around the area he used Reflect to put them in.

Hopefully, the others were still safe.

"Saur!"

Summer heard what felt like a Pokémon's cry for help. She looked to Scyther, who nodded in hearing the cry. The two chased off, and saw the sight of a Scientist and his Arbok cornering one of the strangest Pokémon Summer had ever seen.

It looked like an Ivysaur, but it instead of the usual flower on its back there were these small, deep amethyst gems etched over its back. Still there were leaves around the gems, but they were a heavy purple with red polka dots. Its skin was completely pink instead of the usual bluish green or even regular shiny color and it had several flowers around its head that was found between its ears that was giving it a peaceful look.

{If you want to see an actual picture of this, watch on youtube 'shadypenguinn's Pokémon Insurgence Walkthrough part 5'. It has the newest model for Delta Ivysaur in game.}

The odd Ivysasur cowered as it curled up and placed it's paws over it head to somehow hide in front of the towering and intimidating Arbok.

"Get back in your cell, Delta Ivysaur! Escape is futile!" The scientist roared as his Arbok hissed.

"Scyther, Slash!" Summer called out. The powerful bug and flying type rushed for the Snake and connected the strong swipe of his sickle arms which sent the mighty sake coiling backward.

The scientist turned to the voice. "What? What's a Pokémon Ranger doing here?!"

"I should ask you what's going on! What in Arceus' name is going on here!?"

The scientist just scowled and threw out another Pokémon which was a deadly looking Bisharp. "Bisharp, attack the Scyther! Arbok, capture the Delta Ivysaur!"

The two Pokémon did what they were told, Scyther and Bisharp clashed steel, but easily pushed back the older Pokémon. The Arbok lunged itself for the strange Ivysaur, but it slipped out of it's way and ran up to Summer as if it sensed her emotions to protect her.

"It's going to be alright." Summer tried to sooth the near crying Pokémon. As Summer felt the Pokémon, she didn't feel the same feeling she would have whenever she was with grass Pokémon. In fact, she felt like this Pokémon was almost a psychic… and fairy type? But that was impossible, she just heard the scientist call this Pokémon an Ivysaur a poison and grass type, not a fairy or psychic type.

"Give that thing back!" The scientist roared.

"This is a living being! Not some lab experiment!" Summer cried out and stood in front of the small Pokémon to protect it.

The scientist ignored her. "Arbok, after her!" The scientist wailed as he pointed to her. The Ivysaur cowered behind her and Summer gritted her teeth as it came closer.

Then Scyther jumped in, kicking the Arbok in the face with his foot paw. Making the larger snake slid back until it stopped itself.

"Way to go, Scyther!" Summer called out in hope, but paled in horror when Bisharp performed a Night Slash across his exposed back, making the older Pokémon wail in pain like never before.

"Arbok, Bisharp! Double Team the Scyther!" The scientist commanded coldly.

Summer could only watch in desperation as the two Pokémon ganged up on the injured Pokémon. The Arbok used a Slam attack to crush the bug type into the ground he fell on. There was a horrible crunching noise as the attack connected that was heard even over the sounds of battle and Scyther's own soul-shattering scream of pain.

Summer couldn't even look away as the Arbok wrapped itself over the fallen mantis Pokémon, lift it up and toss it over to Bisharp who had his blades armed.

"No!" Summer cried out. but Scyther still tried to fight and weakly raised one of his sickles out. However, it was all for naught as Bisharp launched a Sucker Punch right for Scyther's face, another painful blow but this time cuased blood to spill out from the punch.

"Not again…" Summer clenched her fist hard. Her thoughts raced back to all those times she sit back and watched someone else fight and get hurt for her troubles. She wasn't going to let this happen again! "Not this time!" She quickly looked toward a nearby flame and checked her Capture Stlyer functions. "Please work…" She aimed her capture Disc at the fire and launched it with haste. It went into the flame and Summer quickly activated a sequence in her stylus.

"_Fire Assist Primed. Limit ten seconds._" An electronic voice came out.

Summer acted fast, swinging her hand with stylus and pointing towards the stalking Bisharp and Arbok towards the severely weakened Scyther. The two enemy Pokémon glanced over to see a small speck of red incoming fast towards them and they jumped away when a wall of fire appeared from the streak of red and separate them from their prey.

Summer ran towards Scyther. She had to get him out of there. However, she didn't notice nor care that the Ivysaur was slowly trailing away in fear of the fight.

Summer ran up and kneeled to the fallen Pokémon. "Scyther!? Please be alright!"

The older Pokémon whined, signaling it was alive, but it was greatly injured and fatigued from the blows of the Pokémon.

"**Damn you old age… not now…**" Scyther cursed bitterly under his breath. His bones were aching badly, more than likely some were even broken now but the pain was so overwhelming over him he didn't even know or care. It took all of his strength to stay conscious or else they would really die in this situation.

To Summer's horror the flames quickly died down. The scientist and his two Pokémon looked furious as he scanned the area for the Ivysaur.

"You little wench! The Pokémon escaped!" The scientist roared before pointing to her. "Bisharp, kill her!"

The steel Pokémon lunged and did a rising Night Slash towards Summer, who barely dodged the attack but had her goggles cut off from the attack and made her hair fall down. The Pokémon Ranger stumbled and landed beside the fallen Scyther.

Summer gritted her teeth and stood back up, shielding Scyther from the two Pokémon and mad scientist in front of her. "I won't run away anymore! I'm tired of other people saving me when it's my job to protect them!"

"Quiet wench! Arbok, Poison Fang!" The scientist commanded with furious rage.

The purple snake lunged, mouth wide to kill her with venom.

Summer closed her eyes shut.

…

…?

"What!?" The voice of the scientist called out in shock.

Summer opened one of her eyes to see what was going on then quickly opened both of them in surprise. The Arbok was frozen mid air with psychic energy.

Her mind raced at the thought of a psychic Pokémon saving her. "Wes?" She called out before turning her head. But then she was once more surprised to see the psychic attack came from the strange Ivysaur!

"No! The Delta Ivysaur is using the psychic attacks!" The scientist cursed out.

"**L-Leave them alone!**" The female Delta Ivysaur exclaimed before tossing the Arbok right to the Bisharp and making the two Pokémon get knocked back.

"Not this again! Bisharp! You take point, and hurry up and kill the Ranger!" The scientist commanded again.

This time the dark type got back up and lunged for Summer and Scyther again. However, the Ivysaur then launched something _coated in metal_ that it was originally carrying in the air with it psychic ability, and threw it towards the fallen Scyther.

Before the Bisharp could launch it's Night Slash on Summer, a bright burst of light shined brightly in the darkened battlefield.

In the mid of the flash, a loud almost musical clanging of steel was heard.

As the light died down, Summer refocused her eyes and was surprised to see a Scizor!

A Scizor was using one of its claws to clamp hard on the Bisharp's hands and causing the dark and steel type to feel pain.

"**Haven't your mothers ever told you, not to strike a lady?**" Scizor mocked with a haughty voice before throwing the hand upward, making the Bisharp staggered to regain his balance. In that moment, Scizor ducked, followed the staggering Bisharp and performed a powerful X-scissor that made the Pokémon fly from the impact and fall nearby the Scientist's feet.

Summer finally looked behind her to notice that Scyther wasn't there anymore. And suddenly this Scizor appeared out of nowhere. … Did Scyther evolve when she wasn't looking? How? Was there a Metal Coat somewhere around her? Never mind that wasn't important. Now there was a fighting chance!

The scientist growled as both his Pokémon got back up. "GRR! Kill them you buffoons! Kill them!" He desperately yelled as his Pokémon launched themselves towards the red bug/steel type.

Bisharp tried to use a Sucker Punch to get a hit off first, but then was blinded sided by a powerful Technician boosted Bullet Punch from Scizor.

"**This body feels great!**" Scizor cried as he dodged a slam from Arbok and quickly did a rapid fire of spamming Bullet Punches on the poison type. Scizor stopped the vicious storm of steel fists(claws) for a second to let the very weakened Arbok have a second of breathing before finishing it off with a powerful rising uppercut of the Bullet Punch variety. It flew high into the air and slammed down unconscious. "**Bones don't feel as weak anymore! And I feel as vibrant as I did in my prime!**" Scizor viewed over his body with great joy before focusing on the Bisharp coming back into his feet.

He let the Bisharp come at him with a Night Slash assault, but Scizor dodged each dark powered slash easily. After dodging as long vertical Night Slash, Scizor spun and performed a powerful X-scissor right across the chest of the Bisharp. The direct hit finally made the Pokémon fall.

The scientist finally saw things weren't going his way and tried to flee, only to stop as he turned to see a very pissed off Summer.

"You Li—"

He didn't get to say anything as Summer punched him square in the nose, breaking it and knocking him out cold.

"… I never liked evil scientists. They always cause so much problems." Summer shook her fist as she then picked up her broken goggles of the floor. She sighed. "… Well I've been meaning to get rid of these anyway, I was out growing them."

Scizor then walked up to the Ivysaur. The smaller Pokémon almost jumped as the taller Pokémon came to her, but calmed down when the red Pokémon knelt on one knee and smiled at her. "**I owe you my life miss. You have my deepest thanks.**"

"**O-Oh! Y-You're welcome…**" She nervously responded.

"Did you save us? Thank you for that." Summer said as she assumed by Scizors actions, the Ivysaur was the one who saved them.

"EEEEEEEOOOONNNN!"

A monstrous roar echoed throughout the battlefield. Summer and Scizor wondered what was happening at the heart of the battle.

* * *

[A little while ago.]

"_There! Lily, Energy Ball! Ohko, Dual Chop!_ _Takezo, knock those stupid idiots out!_"

Anto commanded his Pokémon accordingly. Ohko defeated Haunter in one blow while Lily overwhelmed a Gastrodon with her Energy Ball. Takezo quickly ran up and whacked an Abyssal Cultist right in the neck before throwing his blade and hitting someone from the Cult of Perfection square in the unmentionables before Anto ran up and hammered him in the face to knock him out cold.

"**Niiiccce, boss!**" Ohko gave a thumbs up to the boy.

"_Yeah, well watching you guys spar, I can't help but want to learn how to throw one heck of a punch as well._" Anto rubbed his knuckles.

Takezo pointed ahead. "**We must hurry! We were lucky so far, but I believe there might be others who truly might be close to killing one another!**" He cried before Anto tossed him back his blade.

Anto nodded before noticing three slightly dirty objects on the floor. It looked like some kind of scarf, band, and specs. He noticed that these were all Choice Items, powerful objects that greatly increase a specific fighting ability, but lock a Pokémon into using one move in return. Anto thought those would really come in handy, and decided to keep his eyes out for any other items he could use that survived the explosion.

Then he noticed a Swampert tackle a Rhyperior and make the ground shake beneath them because they both slammed into each other hard and were locking hands together to overpower the other almost like Sumo wrestlers.

"_Lily, Magical Leaf!_ _Ohko, Takezo, follow it up with an Assurance to Swampert's neck and Double Kick into Rhyperior's neck! Hold back and just knock them out!_"

His Pokémon trio sprung into action again, expertly following his orders and taking down the two bulkier Pokémon.

"What the?! Who's that kid?" Anto looked over to see the two opposing trainers of the Pokémon he just knocked out looking at him. They both took out another Poké Ball—

"YAAAHHH!"

They both screamed in pain while Anto fought the urge to gag at the horrid sight.

The two of them were blindsided. Acid shot out and melted off the Scientist from behind while the blue person was electrocuted to death. Anto shivered at such a cruel sight, but he forced himself to focus. He was in a life or death situation, he needed to suppress his emotions or else they would all die. He had to push back the increasingly rising fear and doubts. They would only get him killed. It wasn';t easy, it was the hardest thing to do really. He was a forteen-ish year old boy with Amnesia, he didn't ask to be suddenly thrown into a death match between these crazed lunatics. But he was here, and so were his friends. He'll talk about this later, let the adrenaline run its course and force his mind to think!

The attacks. It was a Thunderbolt and Acid. Poison and Electric. The Poison attack was landed on the scientist, so it must have been from a blue guy. Since all of the blue people he's beaten up so far have a water Pokémon, there is some kind of sea theme with the blue guys and the Pokémon just used must be part poison as well as water, or at least can learn acid. The scientist's Pokémon are way more varied, but the electric attacks match them more unless it was a Lanturn or such.

Anto calmed himself as he crowded his mind with information. It was working for now.

"**Boss! We gotta go!**" Ohko called him out.

Anto nodded as the three of them made their way up some debris. At the top, they were horrified to see more casualties, but Anto focused on those who were still fighting, those that they could still save and stop.

Some scientists were fighting against several blue guys. It was a good thing that these guys were all fighting each other and not him. It really made thing easier for surprise attacks and knocking them out cold.

However, Anto noticed that they were close to a really weakened crate with layers of chains slowly being broken around it.

"Tentacruel, use Acid Spray!" A blue female called out and launched the corrosive chemical towards the scientist and their Pokémon. But all of them jumped out of the way and it hit the heavily chained crate.

"NO!" The scientists yelled. "Not Experiment Delta Charmeleon's containment unit!"

Suddenly a large hole appeared as the last of the acid melted away. Everyone satred into the deep darkness of the crate and saw nothing.

Until a pair of ungodly purple eyes shot and opened up.

"(EEEEEEEOOOONNNN!)**KKKKIIIIILLLLLLLLLL!**" The Pokémon cried out in a shrill, ear-piercing roar that shook the area around a quarter of a mile.

Everyone shut their ears but Anto's amber eyes noticed something crash through the weakened crate and cleave a Scientist in half.

A horrendous and terrifying Pokémon was standing over the corpse it just killed. It looked like a Charmeleon, but without its skin! It was like a walking skeleton of undead Charmeleon but at the tip of its tail was a dark ghost fire. Its torso was hollow, but it looked filled with a abyssal darkness of where its heart once were. The ribcage around his torso seemingly opened up to show a form of supernatural darkness at the center of its chest. The air around it felt cold, as if it was the chill of the dead.

{If you want to see a better image for this, simply search up Delta Charmeleon in whatever search engine you have. Or for more specific results, search Delta Charmeleon in the Pokémon insurgence wiki. Basically it should look somewhat like the description above.}

One of the Abyssal members pointed out. "It's a Delta Pokémon! Capture or kill it!"

The variety of water Pokémon charged straight for the skeleton version of the fire type. Anto briefly wondered why they called it a Delta before he saw the flame of the Charmeleon turn into a deathly green color.

The Pokémon inhaled, pointing his head high, before launching a devastating Dragon Breath right into the face of the Tentacruel. The water poison type yelped in horror before his face was burned off.

"**By Arceus…**" Takezo, horrified at the sight, just stood and watched as the Charmeloen kept going. Using moves such as Shadow Claw, and Shadow Sneak to go up to the weakened Pokémon and kill them mercilessly. Then chomp viciously on the human trainers, slaughtering them like a meat house. All the while as it did this, it was continually screaming "Kill! Kill!" over and over again.

Anto snapped out of it. "_We need a plan. Now._" he quickly took out the items he found and gave them accordingly to his Pokémon. Takezo got a Choice Scarf, Ohko was given a Choice band on his head like a bandana, and Lily wore the Choice Specs. "_These thing boost your powers, but they lock you into one move. So do not use a move until I tell you to._"

"**What are you going to do?**" Lily asked.

Anto glanced over to the powerful and angry Pokémon stalking over to an injured scientist. "_Something you three will probably hate me for. HEY YOU! WALKING SKELETOR! YEAH I'M TALKING TO YOU! THE MOVIE RIP OFF CONVENTIONS IS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!_"

The enraged Pokémon in question turned its head towards Anto and his Pokémon.

Anto glanced to his Pokémon. "_OK, phase 1 complete. Phase two—RUN!_" Anto yelled as he dashed off in the opposite direction. The trio also followed right after him.

"**So what's phase 3, boss?**" Ohko asked as they glanced behind them and saw Delta Charmeleon catching up with them by using a Shadow Sneak to phase into the ground and chase after them like an angry shadow spirit.

"_Um, work in progress?_" Anto weakly offered. "_Wait a sec, he's using a ghost type move—Takezo, take the hit, you're immune to ghost types!_"

Takezo slid to a stop while making his body face the opposite direction then, with even greater speed than before thanks to the Choice Scarf, he slammed his palm into the moving shadow and activated his Assurance attack.

The dark palm obviously dissipated the shadow and made the Charmeleon jump out of the ground and roll in pain as small bits of dark energy coiled around its body.

"_That looked really effective. It's a ghost type? But they called it Charmeleon! It's supposed to be a fire type—no. I they called that thing a Delta for some reason. I really don't think it's normal. Ohko, get ready to lock into Dual Chop, I'm willing to bet it's also a dragon type from how strong that Dragon Breath was. Lily, get ready to lock into Magical Leaf. You'll be using it defensively though—I'll explain more as the fight goes!_" Takezo came back with the group and everyone readied themselves as the Delta stood back up.

"**Kill… Kill… HURT!**" The Pokémon roared before firing a powerful Dragon Breath towards them.

"_Now! Use Magical Leaf like a wall!_"

Lily acted quickly, making the leaves she controlled from a rudimentary barrier for all of them. Thanks to the boost from Choice Specs, the Magical leaves all glowed brighter as if to signify they were much stronger. But even so, the leaves all had trouble absorbing the attack and burned out when the Dragon Breath faded.

Charmeleon wailed like a mad banshee before charging at them wildly.

Takezo sped off, sliding and swiping the Charmeleon off its feet by slashing its legs with a Assurance boosted slash. As it hung in the air for a few seconds, Ohko ran up and performed a rising uppercut filled with dragonic energy, making both of them rise into the air. Then, quickly spinning his body and kicking the Charmeleon straight into its stomach. With Choice Band, the Charmeleon flew like a baseball back into ground and crashing into whatever merchandise and items that were left.

Anto was glad that the choice items were really working in his favor.

"**C…e…u…**"

Then he felt everything go cold despite being surrounded by flames. "_Wait a sec. Please don't tell me this is a different version of Blaze, the ability that pretty much boosts a starter Pokémon's moves when it's weakened?_"

"**Curse… you… CURSE YOU!**" Charmeleon burst from the ground, his ghost fire in his tail had only grown and was now big enough to show a dark, angry face glaring hard at the four in front of it.

Anto turned hurriedly to Lily. "_Magical Leaf wall again! Full power!_"

Giving it her all, she summoned a far more impressive wall in front of them.

Charmeleon didn't care. He inhaled a lot of undead energy before unleashing a devastating Shadow ball that exploded on contact of the wall and broke it.

The blow made the four fly until they all smashed into a left over wall. Ohko tried to get up, but saw the failing wall collapsing on them. He looked to Anto and quickly pushed him out of the way before the wall fell on top of him.

Lily and Takezo saw what happened. "**Ohko!**" Then Takezo jumped off and parried a powerful and boosted Shadow Claw from tearing Lily apart.

However, that did not stop the force of the attack to pound Takezo and Lily to the ground, trapping them under the continuous weight of the enraged and powerful Charmeleon.

Anto got back up and quickly saw Ohko trapped under debris while Lily and Takezo were about to be crushed! He looked around him, desperate for anything to help and thanked whatever being for the gift.

"_Hey you!_"

The Charmeleon looked over to see Anto throwing a Dusk Ball hard coming its way.

Takezo saw this, and quickly pushed up the Shadow Claw back. Quickly, he got up and smashed an Assurance boosted sword into the Charmeleon's neck and aimed him towards the thrown Dusk Ball.

The ball hit the Charmeleon in the forehead and it absorbed the creature.

It wobbled once.

Anto came up and tried to do the same thing he did with Ohko.

It wobbled twice.

Takezo prepared itself for another go.

It wobbled a third time.

Lily quickly used her leaves to get Ohko out of the debris as fast as possible.

Then it locked.

The four breathed a sigh of relief.

"_Everyone alright?_" Anto asked.

"**I am a little sore, but I'll live.**" Takezo answered.

"**Same.**" Ohko concurred as Lily finished fishing him out.

"**Next time give us some warning before making the mad beast come after us.**"

"_I thought arming you guys with stat boosters items was clue enough?_" Anto weakly joked, earning some chuckles form his Pokémon. They needed that to distract them from the near death experience.

However, it was short lived as a powerful Dark Type attack exploded elsewhere.

"**That looked like Dragon's Wrath. Is that not Deino's dual move?**" Takezo worryingly looked to Anto.

"_Alright guys, we need to move. Wes needs our help._"

* * *

[A few minutes before…]

Wes threw the Snag Ball snatching away an Empoleon while quickly charging up another to capture a weakened Cradily.

"Hey!/What the—" The two opposing cultists were then knocked out by Espeon and Umbreon.

"Well that's numbers 8 and 9 stolen Pokémon," Wes told himself as both Ultra Balls locked and succeeded in stealing Pokémon.

Then he saw a large explosion of water coming nearby the cargo boat.

Racing, off and charging another Snag Ball, Wes and his two Eveelutions raced after the fight. When they got there, they were surprised to see a shiny Alakazam throwing flaming debris at a shiny Greninja.

"You know," The scientist commander called out. "It just occurred to me that you were going to try and steal a slow cargo boat to make your escape. What in heaven's name did you think that was going to work?"

"Oh please. We totally were expecting you Cult of Perfection to have some back up. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a helicopter stashed somewhere in that behemoth." The Abyssal commander responded coyly as her Greninja fired more Water Shurikens at the Alakazam. The psychic type simply caught the fast attacks with psychic energy and made them explode harmlessly. He tried to catch Greninja by throwing something else, but the nimble Pokémon jinked out of the way.

"This is getting problematic," The scientist fixed his glasses before summoning a weird looking Wartortle.

"What the heck? What's with that Wartortle?" Wes asked as he and his Pokémon choose to stay out of sight.

{OK you get the idea by now. But this time I strongly suggest looking up Delta Wartortle since this is getting long as is.}

"Crap! A Delta Pokémon!?" The female commander cried out in shock as she saw the dark turtle that seemed suspiciously dressed like a ninja.

"Delta Wartortle, use Shadow Sneak. Then pin that other ninja down."

The Wartortle vanished into the ground and like a snake, quickly appeared behind Greninja's shadow and clung to him.

"Shake him off!" The female commander yelled.

"To late. Alakazam, Psychic!"

"I thought you were a scientist. Even I know that Delta Wartortle is a dark and fighting type. And Greninja is a Dark and water type!"

The scientist commander smiled darkly. "Ever hear of Miracle Eye?"

She paled at the mention of the move that allows psychic moves to hit dark types. She got even worse when she saw her Greninja being lifted by psychic energy.

"It's time to end this. Alakazam, catch." The scientist called out before throwing an odd gem that looked suspiciously like Budi, the Medicahm's gem to him. Wes stared as the scientist took out an electronic bracelet. "Mega Evolve!"

"Y-you can mega evolve?" The horror on the female's face was palpable.

As Mega Alakazam came to be, the scientist fixed his glasses again in a mocking manner. "Please. You truly believe we couldn't replicate it's functions? Mega Alakazam, crush her and her Greninja."

The female and her Pokémon wailed as they felt an overwhelming psychic power crush them.

However, Alakazam sensed something and stopped his attack to stop a strange glowing Ultra Ball from reaching him.

"Crap!" Wes cursed as the ball then exploded by Alakazam's power.

"What on earth?" The scientist looked over to where Wes, Epseon, and Umbreon were. "Great, a witness. I don't know why you threw a Poke Ball at my Pokémon, but you'll regret that. Wartortle, defeat his two Pokémon."

With another amazing speed, the ninja turtle came in, ready to unleash a Faint Attack on the Espeon, Umbreon, stepped between them and clashed with a Crunch attack.

Espeon felt a huge psychic pressure towards them and saw the Alakazam preparing a Psychic towards them. He quickly aimed all of his strength into a Psybeam to counter the stronger attack, but was obviously being over powered.

Then Wartortle performed a Vacuum Wave, a fighting type move on the Umbreon, forcing it back and making it stagger in pain.

Wes gritted his teeth. "Alright, plan B! Espeon, Psycho Star! Umbreon, Shadow Unknown!"

"What?" The scientist raised his brow at the call of such moves.

Espeon, reaching deep with himself, fired the combination move of Psybeam and Swift, launching a storm of swift moving, psychic stars at Alakazam that exploded with fierce psychic energy at contact. Umbreon, using the combined move of Secret Power and Crunch, made the area turn dark around him before boulders shot up from the ground and pelted Wartortle with dark infused environment.

With Alakazam momentarily down, Wes threw another Snag ball at the Wartortle. This time he caught it and it came back to his hand.

The scientist recovered from the shock and his Alakazam returned to his senses after the attack. He noticed his Wartortle was gone and realized why he threw a Poké Ball from the start.

"You little thief!" The commander of the scientist roared. "Alakazam, get back my experiment!"

Wes saw a much stronger version of Psychic plow quickly through Espeon's attempt at resistance and he quickly pulled out Deino's Poké Ball

However, it was a second to late a he dropped it and felt his body freeze in place.

Espeon, Wes, and even Umbreon were lifted into the air by Mega Alakazam. The commander of the Cult of Perfection scowled hard at him. "You thief! I should have known that machine of yours can steal other Pokémon! … Wait a sec. That's not a public invention… who are you?"

"Dee!"

The scientist looked over to see a Deino running up to him angrily.

"Crap! Deino, stop!" Wes cried out. He was trying to send that Pokémon away to get anyone else.

"Is that a baby? Alakazam, take that creature too." He coldly stated. The mega complied and lifted the struggling Pokémon in the air.

"NO!" Wes, Umbreon, and Espeon all struggled, but the mega psychic's hold on them was too strong.

"Give me back my Delta experiment, or else the little one gets it." He demanded.

"Fine! Fine! Don't hurt him!" Wes called out.

"Wait. What am I doing? I have complete control of the situation," The scientist darkly realized. "Alakazam, kill them all _then_ take his machine and stolen Pokémon back."

The Mega complied unleashing a devastating psychic blow with all four of them. Wes, Umbreon, and Espeon all wailed in agonizing pain as the attack was breaking their minds apart.

Deino however, seemed to focus more on the fact his friends were being hurt. "**D-Don't… hurt… my… FRIENDS!**"

A large burst of energy came from within Deino and another bright flash of light made Alakazam lose focus and drop all of them.

Wes and the other two got back up, only to see Deino had evolved! He was now a Zwelious! And both heads looked particularly ticked off.

"Alakazam! Hurry, use Psychic again!"

"Use Dragon's Wrath!" Wes responded quickly.

Both heads gathered quickly gathered a large amount of combined dark and dragon energy and launched two vicious looking dark dragons that smashed even through the Miracle Eye psychic attack.

As the two horrifying dragons got close, the scientist screamed in utter panic. "Get us out of here, Teleport!"

However, before he could try, the Alakazam found himself frozen by Espeon's Psychic energy. That hold allowed the improved dark dragon to make contact.

BOOM!

{End Music here if you want.}

Wes shielded himself as the attack died down. The two of them were unconscious but seemed to have be blown all the way into a metal crate from the force of the attack.

Wes rubbed his head. His head was aching, but it seemed like all was there.

"_Wes!_"/ "Wes!"

He turned around, seeing Summer, and Anto coming up to him. They must have come after taking care of their ends.

He genuinely smiled at them before sitting on the ground, completely relieved that this was all over.

[Meanwhile…]

"Well Crap." Warden said as he watched the explosion from afar and see the police coming up. "Man… that will put us in a tight spot. But at least I was able to get up the Back Up and reinforcements ordered from Inquisitor." He glanced over to Budi who was meditating. "Come on man, we have to prepare for the trap."

* * *

**{Author notes.}**

**And done! Wow this chapter was very long to write!**

**Next chapter we finally let things slow down as everyone has reactions to the event.**

**So much happened this chapter so quickly!**

**Scyther evolved; Anto's Pokémon received Choice Items; Delta Pokémon appear; and even so much more that it will take next chapter to fully explain everything!**

**And remember, you can still join in on the chaos of this story by submitting your OC! (see previous chapter for details.)**

**If you thought this was action packed. This journey is just chock full of action packed adventures-Get back in the closet Michael Bay!  
**

**Umm... ignore that last part will you? I'm not an evil reboot-ist. Totally...**

**Thanks for reading!**


	14. Ep 14: Kicking Back

**{Author notes.}**

**Important!**

**OK, I'm not sure if some of you paid attention, or if I wasn't clear enough, maybe both, but I said I was going to introduce the OCs entering **_**Later**_**. Around the period of Nimbasa City where I have a long arc planned for it.**

**Some of you (Don't worry I'm not calling you out.) and I actually mean ****several**** of you tried to submit me an OC and thought I would write them right after my most recent chapter.**

***Deep Breathes.***

… **Your OCs will be properly introduced around Nimbasa city where in the mean time, I can work out the stories I have planned until that event.**

**But I'm not entirely cruel. Because I did ask you guys to be descriptive as possible and make your own stories, I will at least show cameos of your OC through this chapter, at least the ones asked to meet around this story's period, but they will not be officially introduced until later.**

**I also realize for some that actually did listen to the rules, this seems a little unfair that the other OCs get introduced first. I'm sorry, but the story line until Nimbasa is rather strict and planned out. I can make Cameo appearances still, maybe squeeze them in here, but they will be later.**

**With that done, it's time to get back into the story.**

* * *

"_We're here live reporting in Castelia City Docks where right before is the company Dimension Enterprise Unova Branch in ruins. According to the sources, an evil organization from the Torren Region had attacked them with a bomb, but was cut off by a rival enemy team. They were battling brutally until several unknown heroes, claimed by the workers, had subdued the violent criminals. However, not all of the heroes wanted to remain anonymous. We were told by some of the witnesses, including one of the criminals, that there was a Pokémon Ranger among them,_" The cameraman turned the screen towards Summer. "_Here is officer Summer to give us some information on the incident._"

Summer looked a little roughed up in the video. Apparently they had caught her while she and Tracey were still helping out the injured into the ambulances, and she still had ash all over her hair, and dirt all over her face.

However, that did nothing to diminish her bright smile. "_I'm sorry, but I'm a little busy right now._"

"_Oh please, just a few questions? How did you know about the attack? Who where these others that were claimed to help you subdue the criminals? And who was it that left those confiscated Pokémon in your care?_"

Summer remained composed on the television. "_I have no comment, nor am I allowed to give out the identities of the civilians helping out in this event. Now if you will excuse me..._"

"OK, put it off now."

Anto clicked the power button and closed the T.V.

A day had passed since the 'Bombing Port' event. And the group was licking their wounds, or so to speak, from the fighting.

Summer was currently away from the center. She felt especially dirty from all of the fighting and decided to take the day off in a hair salon. Tracey was out buying supplies for tonight's dinner. Which left Anto and Wes lounging around their room with Wes trying to work on Summer's Capture Styler again and Anto trying to figure out a battle strategy for his next gymbattle.

It was surprisingly silent after the event. The once busy streets had been deathly quiet. As if recent events, had scared the grand metropolis.

Anto briefly thought about it. Most of their lives they've probably never seen strife or war in such a peaceful but busy life such as this. This event, the bloodshed, the casualties, and the sudden threat to their security must have shocked these people into remembering they aren't always safe. Because of that, the once full streets were almost emptied, and the streets were only filled with slowly moving and quiet cars.

"**This… this feels weird.**"

Anto turned to one of the new members in their room, Delta Ivysaur. The foreign Pokémon was a subject of a heavy experiment and was trapped in a science lab all of her life. When she was being moved, she wished she was free, and as if whatever being above was listening to her, the explosion happened. This event allowed her cage to be broken and made her escape. However, a 'lab coat', as she and Wartortle described the scientists, spotted her and chased her into a corner until Summer appeared. She really seemed attached to the Ranger girl, and Summer decided to take care of her since her current partner was waiting back at the ranger Union. She didn't think she could handle handing over the scared Pokémon to anyone else.

She later introduced herself as a psychic and fairy type Pokémon which surprised everyone. Because of her typing, Espeon later taught her the trick of how to telepathically project their voices to everyone, including Anto, but because Ivysaur was also part fairy type, she was also able to allow dark types into the communication link due to her second type overpowering some of the immunities of the dark types. This allowed a majority of Wes' dark types to actually speak their minds.

It was found out from her and Wes' new Wartortle, that they were Delta Pokémon. Pokémon that have different typing from the rest of their species and had their DNA heavily altered to the point where they would learn different move sets than that of their normal counterparts.

Anto expressed getting a Delta Charmeleon, but it was deemed too angry to release under current circumstances.

As of right now, since Espeon was taking a nap to rest up from his battle with the Mgea Alakazam, Delta Ivysaur was left here to as the translator for all the Pokémon left in their room.

"_Why weird?_" Anto asked her.

"… **W-Well by now the scientists would push me into tests and hook up all these cold, hard machines to me… and now? I'm just doing nothing and I feel so anxious that something bad is going to happen when nothing is happening…**"

Takezo turned to her, originally sitting on Anto's bed, "**We told you, you are free from them right now. You are in good company. I admit we are not the most… behaved of people, but we can promise to be your friend.**"

"**You're automatically my friend!**" Lily cried and ran up to hug Ivysaur, glad to see a sensible female among a multitude of malfunctioning testosterone. "**Thank goodness that I don't have to deal with Ohko's inability to remember I'm a girl!**"

"**Hey not true! I can totally remember that there's a dude and not-a-dude!**"

His trainer and two allies sighed.

"**Case and point.**" Lily looked back at the confused Ivysaur.

Umbreon lifted his head from Wes' bed. "**Please, have you seen Zwelious now? He's worse than before! I think evolving at a young age has impaired his cognition stage.**"

Everyone in the room looked toward the dragon with two heads somehow staring at each other.

"**So if I'm me? Then who are you?**" One head asked the other.

The other head replied in a peppy manner. "**You is I! And Me is myself, which is you!" **

"**So I'm you?**"

"**And I'm you too!**"

"**So I'm me ****and**** you? Then who am ****I**** if you are me?**"

"**Maybe I'm the me that is you that is I!**"

"**But if I'm you, and you is me, then who are we if we're not each other?**"

The other head gasped. **"Maybe we are you who is me who is I that is you who is myself!"**

"**Oh you'd want me to think that, wouldn't me?!**"

Everyone decided to tune him out of sheer necessity to protect their sanity.

Wes groaned as he placed an important looking microchip down. "I just realized that we recently gained the ability to talk to the rest of you. And now I wish we never did in the first place. Scientists are crazy for saying we should learn how to speak with you creatures; you're insane! We shouldn't communicate with Pokémon."

"**Oh please, Wes. Like you humans are any different. It kind makes sense crazy attracts crazy.**" Espeon theorized as he snuggled on to the pillow on Wes' bed.

"**I honestly find you all different as well,**" Everyone turned to the wall where Delta Wartortle was leaning on. "**But honestly a good kind. All my life I've had this sense of danger whenever I was around the scientists and all those test they put me through. For all of my life, I felt tense, anxious much like my fellow experiment Ivysaur there, and I had this feeling of death hanging over me every second that would get worse if I didn't meet the labcoat's results. Yet when you first opened me up this morning… that feeling has just... gone… and I've never felt such a feeling before… and I like it… I really like it.**"

To be honest the rest of the group didn't know how to react to that, but they felt a small bit of pride. Despite how they seemingly get on each other's nerves, apparently their band of misfits and idiots were preferable to insane, cold blooded scientists! … Though, if one thought about it, anything would be a better choice than the latter option.

Takezo smiled. "**I believe that is called relief from anxiety. I've studied and mastered a human art of meditation where it allows you to find you inner peace where you come into a state where you don't feel such an emotional turmoil. If you would let me, I can be sure to never let you feel such anxiety again.**"

"**You can get rid of it for good?**" Wartortle asked in a hopefully tone.

Takezo shook his head. "**Meditation is not meant for that. Nor would you want to remove such a trait that proves you are alive. However, meditation will allow you to come to terms with your emotions, and ultimately make you understand why you felt as you did before and why you feel differently now. This understanding will help you almost never let emotions like those control you for the rest of your life.**"

Wartortle seemed to think about that. "**I'd like that. I'd very much like that.**"

"**Can I join in?**" Ivysaur hopefully asked.

Anto took out a Dusk Ball. "_Well I wish this guy would come…_" The Pokémon inside the sphere was a very angry beast. Anto had reservations at opening him up when everyone was still recovering so he was still kept within the sphere. "_Delta Charmeleon… why was he so angry?_"

"**That may be partly my fault.**" Wartortle admitted ruefully. "**Fighting him was one of the 'tests' I had to go through. From what few times I could gather, he was far more rebellious to our captors. He always tried fighting them, but he would always fail. The scientists would send me to subdue him at times of his rage. I think all of that restraining has hurt him. He thinks everyone is out to get him and I don't think he's realized he's had the chance to be free.**"

Anto's grip on the Dusk Ball tightened. "_… I guess that means we have to show him it's over. That with us, we won't harm him._"

"**We'd have to get over the initial stage of him not trusting us though…**" Takezo noted.

"_Hey, I've handled you three so far, and I've done alright._" Anto tried to support his idea.

Wes leaned away from the desk and turned to Anto. "Wait, didn't Takezo pretty much take care of you until you met with Tracey? Also, didn't Ohko beat you up when you and he first met? Lastly, didn't all three of your Pokémon help save **you** when you were knocked out unconscious?"

Anto placed his hand on his chin and thought about that deeply. "_That… that didn't occur to me._"

"**All that means is that ****I**** have to handle our newcomer.**" Takezo mockingly puffed his chest.

Anto smirked. "_Just as long as you don't get him obsessed with the idea of Summer and Wes becoming a couple._"

Then the mute received a glare from the Snagger.

After a few seconds, everyone in the room burst to laughter. The two newcomers, Ivysaur and Wartortle smiled genuinely for what felt like the first time in a long time. They prayed to whatever being up there that this wasn't a dream and that if it was they never want to wake up again.

"_Welp, I'm going to go get a snack,_" Anto stood up. "_Anyone want anything?_"

Wes pointed up to catch his attention. "Oh, see if they still have blueberry bagels here in this center."

"_Didn't we have too much of those?_"

"Then what are you getting?"

"_Fine, blue berry bagels it is._"

Everyone waved goodbye to Anto as he left.

On his way down, he was able to spot something in the main lobby of the Pokémon center he didn't spot before: a piano.

Anto stared at the lonely piano at the middle of the lobby. He felt the entire world darken—not in a bad way. As if the piano was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life and it was the very first time looking at such an instrument.

He hypnotically made his way to the large wooden instrument, an unknowing smile coming up his lips. He slid into the empty seat, almost childlike and filled with excitement. Placing his hands on the key and gilding his fingers along the surface felt so… relaxing to him.

He pressed one note, and as if by the magic of the single note, a lock felt like it was opened. Anto closed his eyes and placed both of his hands on the piano.

**{Recommended Music: Rob Thomas – Little Wonders (piano cover) by May W}**

As soon as the first notes played, everyone turned their heads towards the piano and the boy playing it.

There were a few handful of people in the area. Originally they were still quiet after yesterday's bomb scare. However, when Anto started playing, they let themselves all go and relaxed to the melodious tunes of the miniature concert.

No one in the room seemed to know what song that was. They didn't recognize it, but they all agreed that it was quite wonderful. It eased them, made them feel warm and calm.

The newcomers that had just entered into the Pokémon Center stopped and listened to the melodious notes strung together by the instrument and the boy. Three of them especially found it quite attention catching and head turning since they were not Unova natives.

Even a deep purple spiked hair, seventeen year old man with pale skin, piercing blue eyes, blue logo t-shirt with a Master Ball imprinted on the torso, ripped jeans, and wearing black sandals. Lastly he wore a large purple backpack on his back. He also turned his head towards where the music was coming from.

There was also a chestnut brown haired seventeen year old man with chocolate brown eyes, a black T-shirt, and khaki shorts wearing black running shoes that was in the middle of trying out one of Castelia City's famous cones until he looked toward the music playing boy.

As the song finally came to a close, the boy opened his eyes and stared at the pieces in front of him.

The room went back to the way it was before the boy had played, but now some of the side conversations were commenting on the song they had just heard.

However, before Anto could leave, he was approached by someone.

"Wow that was such a nice song you played." A rather sleepy boy drawled on his compliment. He was a brunette wearing a red scarf that stood out along with a red hat.

Anto smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, it was really cool!" A blonde boy with a green scarf wearing some white and orange striped, long sleeve turtle neck, jeans, and rubber shoes energetically commented along the lazily looking boy. Anto noted to himself that these two seemed like polar opposites but good friends by how they were standing close to each other.

It was then he focused on the two Pokémon with them. There was A Chatot on the blonde boy's shoulder and a Munchlax below with the red scarf kid. Those Pokémon were definitely not Unova natives.

"Speaking of!" The blonde boy started off in a high pitched voice that Anto found strange. "Castelia City is so huge! There are Skyscarppers as far as the eye can see!"

The brunette beside him commented. "And their cones are the best as they can be!"

The blonde turned to him. "Even in a new place, is food all you can think about?"

"Not true. I'm looking forward to Unova's well made trout."

"That's still food!" Anto was surprised to see the blond guy slap his friend in what he hoped was a comical manner.

They both smiled and turned to Anto, who just seemed confused at them.

"Huh? It didn't work?" The brunette asked.

"Hmm I guess that's fair, not everyone likes Manzai." The blonde boy answered casually in acceptance.

"Not all places have similar tastes," Anto and the other two boys looked back to a rather elegant girl with blue hair wearing some kind of white hat, fashioning a pink overcoat, had a white scarf around her neck, and wore long white boots on her legs. There seemed to be a heavy air of royalty around her. "Maybe he is simply unfamiliar with style of comedy you show back in Sinnoh."

Anto tilted his head in wonder to who these three were. Where they like a scarf trio or something? And did the girl say Sinnoh? That does explain the Chatot and Munchlax.

"Ahh where are my manners?" The girl turned to Anto. "I am Platinum Berlitz, and these are my closest friends, Dia, sort for Diamond, and Pearl. May I ask the name of someone with wonderful music skills?" Platinum introduced herself and calling the brunette Dia while mentioning Pearl being the name that belonged to the blonde.

Anto blushed at the compliment and rubbed the back of his head. However, he was kind of nervous since he didn't have any writing utensils with him. He sighed before deciding to make hand motions trying to tell them his name.

The moment Anto started moving his hands, two of them had their eyes widen.

"Huh?" Dia questioned as he looked over to his Minchlax and looked back to Anto. "Are you a mime?"

"Dia, he's mute!" Pearl snapped. "Those are hand signs!"

"Oh, so what's he saying?" Dia asked plainly.

Pearl seemed to drop his tension. "Err… Platinum?" He turned to the smarter member of the trio.

The girl shook her head. "I apologize. I do not know sign language."

"His name is Anto."

Anto recognized the voice and looked behind them. But his eyes now widened at who it was, or who he thought it was.

There was a girl with golden brown hair fashioned into a pony tail that reached to the top of her shoulders. She had chocolate brown eyes and was wearing a white designer jacket with a light teal blue T-shirt underneath. She was wearing some kind of loose khaki pants and had some really nice looking black platform shoes.

The four of them, including Anto, just stared at the stylish looking girl heading their way.

"He is a friend of mine, and he is mute." The fashion girl explained while carrying some bags that looked to be filled with conditioners.

Anto seemed confused. Had he met this pretty girl before? And why did she sound so familiar?

It was then another voice came down on them.

"I was wondering where you were Anto. Why does it take so long to get me bagels?"

The group turned to the stairs where Wes had come down to them. He looked to Anto, then the Sinnoh Trio, then to the girl that looked stylish. "Oh hey, Nerd, you're back."

"_Summer!?_" Anto whipped his head back at the Pokémon Ranger in sheer disbelief. When did she look like that!?

"Wes, when are you going to stop calling me that?! My name is Summer!" She emphasized her own name heavily.

Wes smirked in response. "When you stop making it so easy to tease you. Anyway, glad to see you changed your hair style. You looked like you had a dead Krabby on your head all the time."

"I did not look like I had a Krabby on my head! Right Anto?!" Summer and everyone else turned to the mute sitting on the piano seat.

Anto worrying glanced to both of his friends. He was about to concur with Summer, but then as he thought about it, it kind of did look like a Krabby with the two hair spikes in the front like claws and the other spikes in the back as its legs. He felt himself sweat as he paused to shake his head.

So he did what any good man would do.

"I'm going to get food now." He signed language them all before awkwardly escaping.

Summer was dumbfounded and pointed her hand to Wes without turning her head towards him. "I swear you will regret that Wes."

"Maybe, but for now I'm just going to be mildly smug about it for the rest of the day," Wes shrugged off before looking at her more seriously. "Anyway I have some good news: I was able to fix a majority of your old Capture Styler Functions."

Summer actually brightened and turned excitedly to the ex criminal. "Even the long range communicator?"

"Even that."

"Whoa wait, a Capture Styler?" Pearl interrupted them before pointing to Summer. "You're a Pokémon Ranger?"

"Yeah. My Uniform was a bit ruined due to a recent even so I went shopping for some new clothes in the mean time."

"Oh wow, what's Pokémon Ranger doing all the way here?" Dia asked curiously.

Summer winced a little. "That's… not really public information…" She nervously replied as she scratched her face with one finger.

Wes noticed the uneasiness of Summer and decided to step in. "Hey, you guys aren't from around here right?"

Platinum seemed curious at that assumption. "Yes. How did you know that?"

Wes pointed to the Munchlax and Chatot. "Those two Pokémon are definitely not Unova natives. Anyway, since Anto has been taking too long, I decided to go get my own meal. You guys wanna eat?"

At the mention of food, both Dia and his Munchlax's personalities suddenly perked up. "Food, really where!? I bet it's where Anto went!" Before the two rocketed after the direction Anto escaped.

"What!? Dia, wait! Come back here!" Pearl cried out before he and his Chatot chased after him.

Summer sighed and turned to Platinum. "I see you also have some lively male friends around."

Platinum smiled. "True, but that is why I enjoy being with them so much."

"Oh Arceus, trade with me." Summer begged dramatically.

Platinum blinked before glancing over to Wes. The tan boy wearing blue just shrugged his shoulders. "Trust me. You'd be doing everyone a favor with that." He replied in mild smugness before walking after the other boys.

Platinum seemed confused for a second before she relaxed in a small sigh. "You all sound like you get along so well."

Summer sarcastically laughed. "No. Let's just say our interests are aligned. As soon as I'm done, he's—never mind. I am hungry. Food does sound good right about now." She gave up. Trying to explain things would just give her a headache.

[Later.]

A little later in the afternoon, Anto had Ohko, Takezo, Lily out in a rather secluded area of Castelia City.

Previously, he had just finished having a nice lunch with The Sinnoh Trio or Scarf Trio as Wes secretly dubbed them. It was rather fun hearing how Platinum was actually an heiress and Wes pointing out she did have fancy jewelry about her. During the conversation, it was mentioned that there was a Pokémon League up and coming here in Unova and that caught Platinum's interest. Maybe she would join it after visiting the music festival in Nimbasa City. However, during the conversation, the other three were very careful not to let slip too much about themselves due to the fact it would take a very long time to explain how all four of them got together.

Speaking of four, Tracey was able to come back at one point and was also invited to the meal with new friends. He introduced himself as an assistant to Professor Oak to which caught Paltinum's interests greatly since professor Oak is one of the forerunners in leading the scientific studies of Pokémon. Near the end of their lunch, Platinum and Tracey started speaking in science which confused everyone except Wes for some reason. After the meals, the trio thanked the quad and went on their way.

Now, back to Anto, he and his Pokémon were waiting in a rather secluded area behind a few buildings. It was a little out here, but it made sense to be a great spot for both training… and something else.

"We're here."

Anto turned at the sound of Tracey's voice. Summer was carrying Delta Ivysaur in her arms while Wes had all of his Pokémon out as well. Tracey followed everyone else's example and brought out Scizor, Marill, and Venonat.

"_You guys ready?_" Anto asked as he took out the Dusk Ball.

Anto let the ball out and out came an angry cry from Delta Charmeleon.

All Pokémon circled around him; the more battle oriented front liners faced him first.

The ghostly skeleton glanced around him, until his skull glanced over to Delta Wartortle.

"**YOU!**" He roared, his ghost fire at the tip of the tail flared in anger. It's ghost face looked equally ticked off.

He was about to move until Takezo appeared instantly in front of him, placing his wooden blade pointed right at his neck.

"**Apologies. But I must ask you to calm down.**" Takezo glared, ready to fight with the Pokémon if necessary, but will not since that would only hinder their purpose.

"**I understand why you hate me,**" Wartortle began before dropping his battle stance and walking over to him. "**But it's different now. I'm no longer here to hurt you.**"

"**LIES!**" Charmeleon screeched. He dropped into the shadows with Shadow Sneak, escaping from Takezo and quickly tackled and pinned Delta Wartortle down.

Takezo tried to go after him, as well as everyone else, but Wartotle motioned a stop sign to all of them.

"**All those times you've hurt me! It's another one of their experiments isn't it 'Favorite'? What is it this time?**" Charmeleon clenched his fist and punched Wartortle hard. What was worse was that Wartortle still didn't want anyone to move."**That you can beat me even when you're pinned down and battered up? Oh then even I'm going to like this one!**" He punched again before raising his other claw and activating a Shadow Claw.

Takezo knew that that was going too far, but someone else beat him to the punch.

"_That is enough!_" Anto cried as he grabbed Charmeleon's arm from slashing the downed Wartortle.

"**Who the heck are you!? Another blasted scientist?!**" Charmeleon snarled before reading his other claw.

Takezo took his other moving claw as a sign to step in again, until…

"_WILL YOU SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND!?_" Anto mentally screamed, causing several Pokémon to wince at what felt like a psychic screaming heavy metal into their minds.

After a few seconds, he tried a different approach. He kneeled on one leg and tried talking to him. "_… My name is Anto. I was the one that 'caught' you during your escape._"

That last word seemed to have stopped Delta Charmeleon's rage momentarily."**Escape?**"

"_You don't remember do you? You just saw the scientist and Pokémon running towards you, so you attacked them like usual._"

"**I was wondering how I was able to kill them so easily this time. … Wait a sec, you're that odd psychic that screamed at me before!**" He pointed accusingly at him, his flames re-igniting behind him

"_Not really psychic, but yeah, I did that to stop you from killing them. Also, could you please get off of him? He's really not going to hurt you anymore._" Anto pointed to Wartortle.

"**W-why should I belive anything you say! This is probably an elaborate trap!**" Charmeleon yanked his arm away from Anto and pointed it to his face.

Anto quickly motioned Takezo to stop, which the little normal type was getting a bit peeved at people telling him to stop saving their lives. Anto could see the sorrow in his eyes—umm, he had no eyes, so eye sockets? Err, he still felt the sorrow in Charmeleon's voice. It wasn't that he was angry with everything; it was because everything was hurting him and he tried to fight back. That's why he was so cautious, so angry at him, or at least Wartortle. Was all that fighting to him really over? Of course Charmeleon would have trouble believing that after all of his life in fighting, he suddenly was told he didn't need to fight anymore. That would obviously cause him to doubt such a dramatic change in his life to be possible so quickly.

Anto needed a way to get to Charmeleon without showing any harm. Anto thought about it for a second and decided on his next course of action.

"… _If this was really a trap… why are you fully healed?_" Anto pointed out. When he got back from the bombing event, he asked—begged Nurse Joy to heal his Pokémon without looking inside. Thankfully, she complied and was able to fully restore Delta Charmeleon.

Charmeleon's tension dropped. He slowly lowered his claw as he re inspected himself. The last thing he felt was being pushed to the point of using his ability; letting his primal instincts kick in after feeling horrible pain coarse through his body… but now he felt as good as new, nothing like back in the lab where they would only fix him up to the point where he wasn't strong enough to escape, but good enough to fight for their stupid tests. So why was he fully healed? Why did he feel at full strength for once? Why did it feel like… someone actually cared for him?

"**I don't know if you'll forgive me,**" Carmeleon turned back to the unnatural dark and fighting type. "**But I am sorry for the pain I have caused you in the past. But now? We both have a chance at a new life away from that terrible place I'd very much like to be alive to enjoy it.**"

Charmeleon hesitated thoughtfully before getting off of Wartortle. Charmeleon then pointed to Anto. "**You! … I will take your word as of now. But if I find out that you are lying to me—**"

Anto realized the threat, but he saw through it. Putting up a tough act when you're actually scared to the core, it felt familiar to him as well. Something he thought he must have experienced before amnesia. So instead of focusing on that, he decided to thank Charmeleon for giving them a chance and to apologize what had happened to him before.

Hugging a skeleton-ghost-dinosaur thing felt a lot nicer than he originally thought it would be.

"_Thanks… and I promise you that you won't feel hurt again, at least with us._"

No human was ever that close to Delta Charmeleon before. No one had ever touched him without some kind of physical force applied to stop him. Yet there was this odd boy with the ability to speak to him and was… holding him in a way that he actually… didn't hate…

He felt like he was being protected… and that… he wanted to protect…

"_Welcome, Sentinel. Welcome to our merry band of crazy folks, people too stupid to realize the meaning of the word 'abandonment'._"

[Meanwhile…]

Over yonder, a girl was watching the television screen, flipping through the channels like a bored teenager looking for something good to watch… which was exactly what she was and doing.

However, to her surprise, her brain actually noticed something that stuck out from the television.

"_No Billy! I'm not you step brother! I'm You're half Niece!_"

No no, the one a little before the Johto Drama Channel.

"_I have no comment, nor am I allowed to give out the identities of the civilians helping out in this event. Now if you will excuse me..._"

"Whoa, whoa. Wait a sec. That girl on the news… Summer? What the heck is she doing all the way in Unova?" She then continued to watch the program, later learning that she was last seen in Castelia City.

She got off her seat and quickly put on a familiar uniform and a just as familiar device into her wrist before going out the door.

* * *

**{Author's note}**

**Pearl and Diamond's Manzai comedy bit confuses me greatly since it doesn't have a proper translation to English. I mean it does, but the jokes behind it are usually lost due to the dialect, dragging of specific words and specific rhymes in their language and other syntax. So I had no idea how to re construct it after seeing it. The sad part is it's a huge part of the duo's character and I don't want to remove that. So there may be times where I have to at least try those bits even though I don't understand. Could you just pretend their funny to the other characters in the story? **

**The Sinnoh trio from Pokemon Adventures manga are here! Whoo! This maybe a hint or a taste to when the other manga users and maybe Ash and Co come by… (Don't worry they'll all have better roles in the deep future. … at least for now.)**

**Summer has a new get up! I'm retiring her Ranger get up momentarily for the sake of character development! She'll be in those clothes for a while. (Though she'll also be wearing actual shoes later on for traveling purposes.)**

**Sorry for the bits of filler for this chapter, but this chapter was needed in order to set things up.**

**Next time is—hold up. Why is it at every five chapters, there's a gym battle? I didn't plan that.**

**Thanks for reading.**

* * *

Extra/Omake: Money makes the Whole World Corrupt.

*Summer is trying out the fixed Capture Styler.*

Summer: This works great. I have to admit, good job Wes!

Wes: No problem.

*Anto comes in and seems confused.*

Anto: (Via Sign-language) Wes, I thought you told me that the parts you needed were high quality. Where did you get the money?

*Summer's mood drops and then glares at Wes.*

Wes: (Coughs) … I didn't steal the items if that's what you're implying.

Summer: Then _what_ did you do?

Wes: I paid for it alright? I _used_ money like every other person.

*Officer Jenny barges into the room.*

Officer Jenny: Everyone be on high alert! There's a Pickpocket on the loose!

*Anto and Summer glance back at Wes*

Wes: … What? I didn't say it was mine.

* * *

[Extra # 2: Custom Settings]

*Summer is waiting near a desk with her Styler on top of it*

*Heavy Metal Music comes out of nowhere and startles Summer.*

Capture Stlyer: ~FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA~!

Summer: (Covering her ears) Wh-what!? What's going on!?

*Wes pops in through a door with his hands covering his head.*

Wes: (Shouting over loud music.) Oh, I replaced your ring tone with something catchier! Now whenever someone calls you, it will play!

Summer: (Glares at Wes.) CURSE YOU, WES!

Capture Stlyer: ~FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA~!


	15. Ep 15: Creative Souls

Episode 15: Beautiful Failure.

_Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep._

_-Scott Adams_

* * *

Anto stepped into the gym puzzle.

It was time for his Castelia Gym challenge and he was honestly a little nervous about it.

A majority of his Pokémon had a huge disadvantage against the typing of this gym.

Ohko was a fighting type. Fighting versus Bug types are a bad match up since both types are ineffective against each other. And putting him there would probably turn into a battle of stamina which Ohko may be good at, but he wouldn't want to drag fights longer than they could be.

Lily was a pure grass type Pokémon. And recalling that Burgh also had a Venipede, a bug and poison type Pokémon, she was sure to have a very hard first gym battle.

Then there was Sentinel, or Sen for short. Anto thought it would be a very good idea not to use him in an official or public fight at all times. Apparently Delta Pokémon only existed within the Torren Region and their presence can really… disturb someone not ready. Not to mention he had just promised to treat Sen better than the scientists did, so battling a gym leader off the bat was not going to be the best of ways to promise he didn't have to fight as much as he did before.

Which only left Takezo as his best option to face Burgh, and even that wasn't good enough.

Still, he still had one more trick up his sleeve. He had a whole day to think about the type advantage problems and taught of an honest strategy. He did consider re using the Choice items, but he would very much rather have his move pool open to adapt to any situation, and there was also the possibility of his Dual moves not working since the Choice Items requires focus on one move, not combining of two moves into one. He hadn't tried it yet, but he didn't exactly go out of his way to find and experiment with it either.

Anto found out that the theme for this gym was pushing through a large wall of honey. He let Ohko out of his Great Ball. He wanted him to lead off against the gym trainers in preparation for a battle of attrition since both types faired horribly against each other, and he wanted to test out one of Ohko's new moves before they got to Burgh.

Anto tried pushing through it, but it was a lot thicker than it looked and bounced him off of it.

"**Is that honey?**" Ohko asked after watching his trainer get pushed back. "**Oh I get it! You're supposed to eat through this wall of honey to represent your appetite for victory!**" He thought excitedly.

"_Umm… no, but… good—good idea anyway. I'll just try a running start and bust through it…_" Anto responded to Ohko.

"**Pssh! Honey ain't no challenge to break through,**" He threw back his fist. "**Let's smash down these walls!**"

"_NoNoNoNoNo!_"

Anto figured out that this was going to be a long day.

As he made his way down the gym, and did his best to convince Ohko not to eat the Honey nor punch down the walls, Anto saw another room filled with switches that would release a gate in front of another wall of honey. Trial and error didn't seem like a bad idea, so Anto pressed the first switch closest to him. Then something burst from the ground directly in front of the switch.

"When you step—KAAAGRRH!?" The gym trainer cried out before he was punched into the wall.

Anto looked horrified at Ohko who had his fist extended out from a punch. "_Ohko!?_"

"**What? He startled me.**" He explained casually.

Anto knew this would be a long day.

* * *

Even later, when Anto and Ohko finally burst through the final wall of honey, they saw Burgh waiting patiently for them.

"Ahh, welcome my silent but expressive friend! Even when mute, your actions tell all that need to be!" He started.

Tracey then called out from the stands he, Summer, and Wes were watching from. "He also forgives you for accidentally injuring several of his employees and knocking them out cold!"

Burgh dropped his pose. "Err yes. I have been meaning to give them a raise for a while now. But this may have brought some issues to the Union I work with…" He reflected nervously at the safety issues he might have accidentally broke.

Anto made some hand signs in quick succession.

Summer shouted out. "He's saying he's sorry about that!"

"There is no problem about that." Burgh dismissed easily.

Then it was Wes' turn to shout out. "By the way, why are all your gym trainers wearing clown suits, and hiding beneath the ground floor in order to surprise unsuspecting people!?"

Everyone slowly turned back to the gym leader to explain the logic behind grown men wearing clown costumes lying in wait to surprise smaller children.

He opened his mouth, only no sound came out. Then he looked to Anto. "My bug Pokémon are excited to have this battle! This will be 3 V.S. 3 single battle! Let's get started!"

Anto rolled his eyes before calling Ohko back and opening up the battle with Takezo.

Burgh smiled and called out his opener to the battlefield. "Go! Dwebble!"

"**May we have a good fight.**" Takezo unsheathed his blade.

"**Aww cool! You look like a samurai!**" Dwebble commented excitedly. "**I always wanted Burgh to paint something more cultural.**"

Anto mentally cursed as he saw the bug and _rock_ type Pokémon. His best option was shut down instantly. But at least he could still out speed the Pokémon in question. Dwebble was basically a pre evolved form of Crustle and this battle seemed similar to Cilan's Gym fight.

He just hoped there were no unlimited boulders.

"_Takezo, Assurance!_"

And with that, Takezo was off, allowing dark energy to glow into his plan and flow into his wooden blade.

Burgh was actually impressed at the speed of the Patrat his opponent was displaying. But…

"Dwebble, Rock Polish!"

"_Uh oh._"

Takezo tried his best to make the attack connect, but at the last second, Dwebble finished the boost and dodged the swipe.

Burgh's smile only grew larger. "Now, Struggle Bug!"

"_Detect!_"

Takezo avoided the blow thanks to the defensive analysis of Detect. However, that didn't stop Burgh from smiling. "Rock Polish again!"

"_You've got to be kidding me._ _Takezo, stop him! Throw your blade at him or something!_" Not one of his better tactics, but how else could he handle a Dwebble with an insanely high increased speed?

Takezo threw his blade at his opponent, but it was to no avail since all it hit was empty air and the ground where Dwebble once was.

"Now, Dwebble, attack however you wish!"

In one instant Takezo found himself hit by a Feint Attack quickly followed by Struggle Bug, and then was hit by several combos of Rock Blasts. Needless to say he was really not enjoying being hit by something he couldn't touch.

Anto tried to think of a strategy to counter this, but he couldn't actually think of one. Takezo's speed was his only advantage and with that gone, this looked to be a one sided fight.

He had one idea left. "_Takezo, use Hypno Eyes!_" Using a fusion move so early was already a sign of how bad things were getting.

Takezo nodded and understood what needed to be done. He closed his eyes, calmed his muscles, and waited patiently for Dwebble to make a move. Sensing his opponent move toward him, Takezo's eyes shone both blue and pink as he dodged another Faint Attack. Dwebble locked eyes with Takezo for one instant and it immediately put the bug type to sleep. However, he didn't stop his momentum and then crashed into the wall at high speeds.

"Wha—was that Hypnosis!?" Burgh cried out in surprise.

"_Hurry, get your blade!_" Anto pointed. He gritted his teeth, while Hypno Eyes was insanely effective in putting opponents to sleep because the Detect Half would easily lock into the eyes of its opponents no matter what; there was a drawback to it. Hypnosis's effect was reduced in half. In all of the practice matches with Wes and Ohko, Hypno eyes would only put a Pokémon asleep for at most two minutes rather than the longer amount of time asleep a normal sleep status would inflict. There was also the original fact that it also had a far shorter ranger than a regular Hypnosis, so this could only be used within close quarters.

Takezo hurried and got his blade.

"_Swords Dance into Assurance go! Quickly!_"

Takezo jumped, performed the attack booster mid-air then slashed at the almost waking Pokémon with an empowered dark attack.

The slash smacked the Pokémon a good distance back into the main battlefield, but Dwebble regained his momentum mid air and landed with a slide.

"Hmm… I think I got how you did that," Burgh mused. "Somehow, you timed the attack right when Dwebble was close enough. In that case, Dwebble, keep your distance and use Rock Blast!"

Anto mentally cursed to himself, they could only use Hypno Eyes one more time, but Burgh wised up and was out of range of the Hypnosis part of the attack.

It was then Takezo got blindsided by a direct hit and fell over from the chunk of rock that hit him at the back.

Anto felt rather annoyed that happened to him. It was almost like this gym was just made to counter his Pokémon. He then sent out Ohko as his next opponent.

"**Sup. Why are you wearing a rock?**"

"**This isn't a rock, it's my shell!**" Dwebble claimed.

"**A shell? Hey, boss, maybe I need a rock shell!**"

Dwebble seemed ticked. "**Are you making fun of me!?**"

"_Umm we'll talk about that later…_"

Burgh was slightly confused as to how Anto was able to command his Pokémon if he was mute, but there must have been some cue he had. Deciding to treat this like a regular battle, Burgh started off. "Dwebble, Struggle Bug!"

The life in Anto's eyes returned as he smirked at the call. "_Ohko, Counter now!_"

The moment Dwebble made contact with Ohko, he was instantly repelled by Counter and landed shell first into the ground.

"_Double Kick, go!_"

Ohko ran up, sweeping Dwebble upward with one rising kick, but using the same foot to axe kick him down in one quick motion.

Wes and all the others remembered Ohko's Axe Kick. The Pokémon had usually used that move at the end of his double hit combos, and for good reason. Each Axe kick looked beautiful in form and the results were usually powerful.

Dwebble wobbled before falling into unconsciousness. Burgh recalled him before trying to figure out how to deal with Ohko. He placed a finger frame around him and pretended to take a picture of him. "A strong and wonderful Pokémon! Even without an arm, the spirit of this Pokémon just shines even more with less! I feel inspired and I know just the Pokémon to handle such a piece of art! Go Swadloon!"

The pseudo cocoon Pokémon appeared into the battlefield. "**One day, I will evolve into a Beautifly.**"

"_That isn't part of your evolution chain._" Anto pointed out.

"**I shall evolve into one!**" Swaldoon's left eye twitched uncontrollably.

"**Yo, I too have dreams of evolving!**" Ohko agreed.

"_Your species can't even evolve!_" Anto corrected.

"**That's what they want ya to believe boss!**" Ohko explained.

"**Yes, we will leave the non-believers in a pool of their own blood and shattered bones for them to suffer an ironic death of drowning in their own life fluids! MWAHAHAHA!**" Swadloon half cried with eyes filled with spinning hysteria.

Ohko pumped his fist. "**Yeah! Ain't you a pumped up dude?**" He obliviously agreed with his opponent and _somehow_ missed the entire part where he implied horribly killing everything.

"_Ohko, do not agree with the moderately questionable Swadloon._" Anto decided to be really delicate with his words in case he accidentally caused a psychotic breakdown from a direct insult. What the heck? Were Pokémon always this crazy? That Dwebble actually seemed mild mannered for a kid, so how did this guy come up?

"_Screw it, Dual Chop!_"

Ohko complied, launching himself toward the smaller Pokémon and allowing purple-blueish energy to gather into his right hand.

"Swadloon, Protect!" Burgh called out. Swadloon complied and made a protective barrier appear between the two Pokémon and making Ohko recoil back from the force field. "Now String Shot!" The Gymleader commanded expertly.

Swadloon spit out a large amount of web to tie up Ohko's legs. The sudden tie made Ohko trip and fall.

"Keep it up!" Burgh commanded and then Swadloon complied by aiming the next web right into Ohko's face.

Ohko tried to pull it off his face, but it didn't work and it ended up trapping his hand. "**Aww man this sticky, wet stuff is all over my face!**"

Anto wasn't going to comment on that.

"Now, continuous Razor Leaf!" Burgh yelled out while Anto was distracted.

"_Wait, I was distracted!_" Anto was seriously starting to realize there were disadvantages to talking with Pokémon.

"**Behold as I unleash pieces of my Soul! GAAAHHHH!**" Swadloon wailed madly as he summoned leaves from himself and launched them speeding towards Ohko.

Unfortunately, due to how off guard Anto was thrown off by their conversation, his mind lacked the concentration to try and formulate a plan out of this. Poor Ohko was overwhelmed to the point where a grassy and leafy smiley face was now stuck over the webbing in his face.

Swadloon whispered in a fast and dark manner. "**The Smiley Face has judged your sinful soul! Repent and watch Johto afternoon dramas as your penance!**" He finished in a slightly hushed tone.

Anto sighed before looking at his last Pokémon.

Lily came out and saw her opponent laughing hysterically while randomly screaming about Beautifly and Smiley Faces.

"**I stand by my previous statement in men being either idiots or maniacs.**" Lilly deadpanned.

"**Foolish mortal! I will transcend both male and female to become a new gender, Beautifly!**"

Anto and Lily shared a look. "_I would try to argue that, but after seeing him… yeah, I got nothing."_

Thankfully, Burgh returned the maniacal Pokémon before tossing out Leavanny.

Leavanny looked at the confused and slightly disturbed look on Lily's and Anto's face. "**Oh I am terribly sorry. Did Burgh use Swadloon again? It's rather depressing he doesn't notice his mad ravings. Oddly enough he seems well behaved when Burgh is around usually…**" She said.

"**It's fine. I get used to it from males.**" Lily replied.

"**You kind of sound sexist…**"

"**It's just a complaint. I don't really hate them.**"

Anto wondered why he let his Pokémon always have a quick conversation with a gym leader's Pokémon. "_Magical Leaf!_"

"Protect!" Burgh cried out.

The force field protected the taller Pokémon from the onslaught of leaves.

"Now use Hyper Beam!"

Leavanny unleashed a powerful beam that caught both Anto and Lily off guard. Unfortunately, it was direct hit and the explosion clouded the battlefield.

As the smoke settled, Lily was seen out cold. It also signified that Burgh was the winner.

"A wonderful battle!" Burgh exclaimed. "But you are going to have to do better than that if you want the badge!" He then noticed the look on Anto's face. It wasn't that of a sore loser. As he recalled Lilly he placed his hand on his chin and started walking out.

Burgh couldn't help but smile. It looked as if failure couldn't deter that boy's spirit at all, which he had to admit was quite an interesting sight. Not many people would keep their heads up even after from such a loss. Perhaps he would come back again, and when he does he would shine even brighter.

Until then, he would have to draw his newest master piece from this battle. Burgh felt inspired and quickly motioned Leavanny to come to painting room with him. This fight felt especially inspiring and he was going to do his best in capturing it in a muse.

Summer, carrying Delta Ivysaur who she now called Flow, came to Anto along with Wes and Tracey.

"Sorry about your loss, Anto." Tracey started.

"_Oh it's no problem. This just means it's just going to be a little harder in getting this badge._" Anto explained to them through Flow's telepathic powers.

Wes folded his arms. "Huh. I don't know why, but I expected you to be a little more upset over a loss in a gym fight."

Anto thought about it. "_… It's not like I can't try again. Besides, despite how annoying it was to face a huge type and strategy disadvantage, I kind of enjoyed how this made me think on my feet… even if the others did get tossed around like rag dolls. If he still uses the same strategy though, I might have a better chance of knowing what to do._"

Wes nodded at his casual view point.

"That's surprisingly pragmatic of you Anto," Tracey noted. "But does this mean you'll use you-know-who?"

Anto shook his head. "_I do not want to force him to fight if he doesn't like it. While it would make things easier, I'd rather not use him._"

"But how will you defeat Burgh then? I don't think if you noticed, but I think his specific style of fighting and tactics hard counters yours." Summer pointed out.

Anto reflected a bit on that. She was right, but he didn't think it was much of a problem as she put it. "_… Hmm then I just have to switch up tactics… or,_" There was a suddenly gleam within Anto's amber eyes as he smiled and realized something. "_Do the same exact thing…_"

Summer and Tracey seemed confused and baffled as why Anto would want to do the same exact thing again when he lost 0-2. However, Wes couldn't help but smirk at the mute boy's enigmatic wording. "I know that look: it's the look of a mad genius."

Anto glanced back. "_I prefer the term, 'Tragically misunderstood genius'. … Now, to actually heal up the other three unconscious bodies on me…"_

* * *

[Later on...]

"**I'm sorry.**" Takezo apologized sadly as he, Anto and the rest of his Pokémon were out in the secluded area they found and let Sen out in previously.

"_Nah it's fine. You win some you lose some right?_" Anto petted the small one's head. "_Besides it was a team effort, so I have to take the blame as well. Especially when I could have done better in planning._"

"**I want a rematch with that small dude in a blanket!**" Ohko fist pumped passionately.

Sen glanced oddly at Ohko. "**I thought the others said you face against a Swadloon? They don't have blankets.**"

Lily turned her gaze to the newcomer. "**No, trust me, you learn not to question things as much as you should. It just causes more headaches.**"

"_Anyway…_" Anto called all of their attention back. "_We're going back there tomorrow, but this time, we're going to do the same exact thing as today!_"

His Pokémon all stared at him weirdly.

"**Anto, were you hit by a stray Pokémon attack in the head?**" Takezo inquired slowly. "**If so I recommend resting first rather than using something damaged.**"

Anto looked disappointed and slouched in his sitting position. "_Actually I just wanted to sound vague and enigmatic so you would question me then I would actually reveal my real plan._"

"**Why not just start off with, 'I got a new plan', boss?**" Ohko asked bluntly.

"_That's not how it works! I sound crazy, you question me, then I reveal the method of my madness in such brilliance that you have to acknowledge me being clever!_" Anto responded quickly before sighing and calming himself down. "_Anyway, we're going to take this time trying to put some last minute training. Sen, we need your help for this. Mind trying to spar with us?_"

Sen shrugged his shoulders. "**Will you let me stop if I ask?**"

"_Duh._"

"**OK, you're already a million times better than the lab coats. So all I have to do is attack you guys in a way that shouldn't kill you, right? … That might be a little tricky…**"

Lily, Takezo, and Anto seemed a little nervous at this decision as they just realized Sen was still a recently retired killing machine that they had just asked to fight with.

However, Ohko slapped Sen's back happily and laughed. "**It's simple, bro! Just don't kill us!**"

The three really should have told him it wasn't as simple as it sounded.

"**Sounds simple enough. En garde!**" Sen shouted, launching a swiping Shadow Claw at Ohko, but the blue humanoid quickly ducked and assumed fighting position, oblivious at the attempt that the swipe would have cleaved his head off his torso.

Ohko smiled before charging his punch with a Dual Chop and running to clash with Sen.

Anto frantically spoke out. "_Wait this isn't the real training I had in mind!_" Anto found himself ducking for cover after seeing Sen charging a Dragon Breath attack.

It took a whole ten minutes to stop the two from actually 'sparring' and dragging the fight into an empty park.

And by no means was it easy for the other three. Anto saw his life flash before his eyes several times from the two heavy hitters, which was really a slap in the face to him as the only memories to surface were all the near death experiences he went through in the past month. Why couldn't he even catch a break in simply training Pokémon!?

Lilly decided to do the smart thing and bunker down in a safe zone and hope those idiots would stop.

Takezo being slightly more competent than the other two, was able to step the sparring duo. … But not without a price.

To this day, park rangers are still baffled at the Patrat shaped hole found in a part of a stone wall along with claw marks and punch marks.

A little later, back at the slightly ruined hide out, and using one of the dropped Revive potions some random yahoo left lying around, Anto and his team were going to attempt a different form of training.

"_I'm surprised that people leave random medicine on the floor for anyone to pick up. Did other trainers drop these things or something?_" Anto commented to himself as he held the empty Revive in his hand before tossing it in the trash.

"**Err, sorry sword man. I thought you were skeleton bro.**" Ohko apologized to the normal type lying down on the floor in pain.

"…" Takezo simply glared at Ohko, thinking that was an appropriate response to his apology.

Anto sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "_Okay… let's try this again. This time, please listen to everything I say before trying to __**not**__ kill each other. … Now, let me just get a few things…_"

Powerful Pokémon was one thing. Great tactics were another. But as Anto had been learning from his adventure so far, there was one thing that factored into his fights, or at least most of his battles that really caught his interest.

And that was the spark of creativity.

If there was one thing Anto enjoyed when it came to a fight, it was coming up with something new. He once saw a broadcast of a far away region's Grand Festival where coordinators would combine their attacks in spectacular fashion. Almost a bit like fusion moves but more based on looks and appeals.

That got him thinking of something that there was always more than one way to use an attack. With that in mind, there were some recent and not so recent items he required that had some very interesting effects. If his battle with Burgh taught him anything it's that artists always use tools to convey their work. And there usually was nothing in the rules that didn't allow tools to be used in a gym battle.

* * *

[The Next Day…]

Anto was easily welcomed back into the gym. Thankfully there was this weird rule once you beat a gym trainer, they wouldn't challenge you again even if you lost to the gym leader. Of course there were trainers who didn't get to battle with Anto in the first place, but the fear of crossing with the fighting type again made Anto's journey back to Burgh a little more pleasant.

Burgh smiled at Anto. "And the prodigal Son returns! Welcome challenger! The rules are still the same: 3 versus 3 single battles. The first to have all three knocked out loses," He welcomed kindly. "Now, release your first pick!"

Back at the bleachers, Tracey, Wes, and Summer were all wondering what Anto was going to do differently for this fight.

After, his first battle with Burgh, Anto had been unusually silent—more than usual for a mute… like him. A mute like him. Yes.

Why was _that_ still a thing?

Regardless, Anto spent the rest of yesterday training in secret with his four Pokémon. He had some brilliant idea that would help him overcome the problems he faced here previously.

"Think he's going to use Sen?" Summer asked as she turned to the two boys to her left. Flow looked up at the girl from her arms as she did that.

"No, I think he's still not going to use Sen unless, the Pokémon himself says he wants to join." Tracey theorized.

Wes kicked back and positioned himself into a comfy position. "I wouldn't worry too much. These gym battles are really fun to watch either way. I might even go for the next one myself just to see how well I can do."

The trio was quite surprised when they saw Anto throw out Takezo first again.

"This looks familiar… or is it? Very well then, I sense a twist to a classic!" Burgh cried out before he threw out Dwebble to face Takezo again.

"**Déjà vu.**" Dwebble commented.

Takezo bowed. "**I hope we will have another good match today as well.**" Takezo politely called out before reaching for his blade, spinning it along his palm and gripping it tightly into a stance.

It was then the trio in the bleachers noticed something different about Takezo. He was wearing a scarf around his neck.

Burgh noticed the odd scarf as well, but decided to act before something unfavorable happened to him. "Dwebble, Rock Polish!"

Dwebble quickly started, but then was just as quickly interrupted and shocked… by an electric attack! So basically he was shocked more ways than one…

Wes smiled and sat straight back up into his seat. "Ahh! I was wondering when he would use that Thunderbolt TM Lenora gave him."

"But that was the fastest Thunderbolt I've ever seen!" Summer cried as she watched Takezo continuously blast electricity on the Dwebble from all sides. "Not to mention, Takezo looks faster than usual… wait…"

"Anto is using the choice items!?" Tracey finished the thought of Summer. "But they only allow a Pokémon to lock onto one move!"

"Did you forget their advantage though? Choice Specs up the power of ranged attacks; Choice Bands multiply the physical power of a Pokémon by an extra fifty percent; and Choice _Scarves_ … increase speed. If you can work around the disadvantage, you can make any Pokémon as good as a specialist in one of those departments." Wes explained.

They all turned back to the fight. Dwebble already looked tired being blasted from supposedly all corners with electricity.

This was a complete reversal of yesterday's fight where the two Pokémon have now swapped situations.

"Dwebble, power through and finish at least one Rock Polish!" Burgh cried.

The Pokémon complied, toughing out through one Thunderbolt and finishing the speed booster. With great speed, Dwebble tried to hit Takezo with a Feint Attack, a sure hit move.

The attack connected and sent Takezo back.

"Feint Attack again!" Burgh commanded and with great speed, just not as amazing as Takezo' currently was, Dwebble closed in on Takezo.

Both Anto and Takezo smiled. "_Takezo, parry it!_"

Takezo slashed his blade to stop the Feint Attack, forcing Dwebble to stop in close range with Takezo, a huge mistake.

"_Now!_" Takezo quickly swatted one of Dwebble's claws away and stabbed his wooden blade to the ground before quickly grabbing the other free claw of Dwebble and performing a Thunderbolt from close range.

The battlefield flashed with blinding light before the center of the field exploded.

As the dust settled, Takezo, with bits of electricity sparking along his body, swung his blade and stood over an unconscious Dwebble.

Burgh recalled the rock and bug type, making Takezo flip back into ready position nearby Anto. "Such a reversal! Well done! Now go Swadloon!"

In a flash of light the bug, grass type appeared. He looked into the Eyes of Takezo and wailed in hysteria

"**I use to have legs much like you! Then I took an evolution to the knee!**"

Takezo looked back at Anto confused.

"_Don't ask. Anyway come back. I promised Ohko a rematch._" Takezo complied and allowed himself to return to his Poké Ball.

Then Anto threw the Great Ball out to summon his fighting type.

"**Yo man! I'm back an ready to kick yo face!**" Ohko started off, battle ready.

"**Go back to Las Vegas, Blue man!**"

"**What's Las Vegas?**" Ohko turned to Anto.

The mute shrugged. "_Dunno, but it sounds eerily familiar…_"

Burgh pointed out to Sawk. "I see you're trying the same thing! Fine then, Swadloon, use String Shot!"

Quickly, silk thread wrapped around Ohko's torso. But this time, Ohko was able to tear through the silk with pure strength.

Burgh looked startled. The Sawk was not as strong as before. Even for a day of training, the chances of a fighting Pokémon gaining so much strength in such a short amount of time—it was then Burgh paid attention to the head band the Sawk was wearing.

The Patrat wore a scarf and moved faster than it did before. And now the Sawk looked stronger than before.

Of course!

His challenger was using Choice Items and using them wonderfully! He had never seen a challenger use those items before nor heard any of his fellow gym leaders in saying that they had fought Choice Item users. So he was quite surprised to see them here of all places being used against him.

Ohko ran up to Swadloon, charging his fist with dragonic energy, signifying a Dual Chop. Burgh snapped out of his stupor and ordered Swadloon to release a Razor Leaf attack.

However, Ohko did not show any signs of avoiding the attack. He threw his fist behind his head, stopped running to slide into the attack then threw his fist right into the large storm of pointed leaves heading right for him.

The dragonic energy exploded from touching the first leaf, which caused a shockwave that cancelled the momentum of all the Razor Leaves! Ohko continued through, and while Burgh and Swadloon where momentarily shocked, Ohko was able to use the second part of Dual Chop to karate chop Swadloon hard in the skull and cause the ground beneath the dual type to crack from the impact.

Ohko jumped back and prepared himself for another go.

Swadloon seemingly took the hit well.

"**Huh? Where am I? Everything looks… clear…**" Swadloon coherently asked before falling into the ground unconscious.

Anto briefly wondered if Ohko's chop had just cured a crazy person's insanity… before realizing briefly that Ohko… just OHKO'ed a Pokémon.

Burgh returned his Swadloon. "Haha! Wonderful! I feel so inspired! Go, Leavanny!"

"**Salutations.**" She greeted.

"**Gesundheit.**" Ohko returned.

"**No, I was greeting you.**"

"**Then what did I say?**" Ohko asked.

"**Oh dear, I'm starting to see why she said that yesterday…**" Leavanny thought back to when she and Lily had their brief conversation yesterday.

"String Shot!" Burgh cried out. Leavanny complied and quickly shot another blob of stick web aimed right towards Ohko's face. However, Ohko placed his hand out in front and blocked the attack, yet his hand was now covered in webbing because of it.

"_Despite being evolved, it's pretty much going to be the same strategy. Attempt to pin down Ohko before a Hyper Beam comes out way._"

However, the smile on Burgh's face gave Anto a hint something was wrong.

"Let's try that new move of ours! The Mach Leaf!"

"_Wait, what—_"

In what happened in what could have been an instant, something hit Ohko like an invisible wind and knocked him into hard into the ground.

Weakly, Ohko got up. He seemed to be on his last legs which meant that the attack had activated Ohko's Sturdy ability. That signaled to Anto that it was a very powerful attack to almost one shot Ohko of all Pokémon.

"**Yooo… what hit me?**" As Ohko got up, he saw one leaf on his torso on top of his cloak. He also felt rather numb where the leaf was lying on, but felt the rest of his body ache and feel sore.

"_I-I don't know! What happened!?_"

Burgh smiled jubilantly. "Very well done in making me use this new move, Anto. It truly brings out the best in all of our Pokémon! Now, Razor Leaf to finish it!" Leavanny quickly complied and launched a multitude of leaves at Ohko and knocked out the poor Pokémon.

Meanwhile, Anto's friends were all wondering what was that.

"What… what was that?" Tracey asked as he rubbed his eyes to truly check if that really just happened.

"I don't know…" Summer responded as she looked to Flow on her lap. "Did you see anything?"

"**No… I-I don't know…**"

Wes pondered on what that was. Was it similar to how Anto created Fusion moves? Mach Leaf? But what exactly could it Razor Leaf be combined with? Hyper Beam? No, that wasn't it. Burgh must have found some secret with the Razor Leaf attack.

"Whoa! No way, Dia, that's your trick!"

The trio turned around to see the Sinnoh Trio right behind them.

"Platinum? Dia, Pearl? What are you doing here?!" Summer yelped out in surprise.

Platinum and her two friends looked over to see the people they had met a few days back.

"Oh. Summer, Wes, and Tracey… good afternoon." Platinum addressed formally.

Tracey asked them. "What are you doing here?"

Pearl pointed to Platinum. "Platinum was going to challenge this gym after resting a bit from our voyage, but when we came we were told someone was already taking a challenge. So we decided to go and watch the fight then we'd have an idea of what goes on in this gym," He looked to the field where Anto seemed stunned and deep in thought as he looked between two Poké Balls in his hands. "We didn't know it was Anto. I thought he was mute."

"Wait," Wes stopped him and looked to Dia, causing the boy and his Lax to be slightly intimidated by the stern look on the Snagger's face. "What did your friend mean by 'your trick'?"

"W-Well I found out a move that shows a Pokémon can focus using the power of a Razor Leaf attack into just one leaf. It becomes a super fast attack that never misses its target and hits super hard," Dia explained. "I've used it before sometimes, but I didn't know someone else figured out that trick besides me. The world sure is a big place."

Summer glanced back to the battle. "Um, is there by any chance a weakness to that?"

Dia's gaze returned to that of a more casual and laid back expression. "No."

Wes also returned to watching the fight. "Dang, Anto has horrible luck."

The mute in question was still debating on how to deal with that new move as he stood in the battlefield in deep thought.

"_An attack so fast, you can barely see it. And it's powerful to boot. … How do I counter that? There was just one leaf on Ohko's chest, but it hit like a train… wait. I recall the science fact about how water could be pressurized in such a way that it can sometimes cut through steel. It's basic science. … What if Burgh has found a way to pressurize Razor Leaf into such an attack? I'd call it impossible, but seeing as how I created moves that combine each other, I'd be a hypocrite._"

"I would very much appreciate you calling out your second Pokémon now." Burgh told Anto. He wasn't usually impatient, but he thought that was enough time letting the boy get over his new attack.

"_As fast as Takezo is, I don't think he can avoid such an attack without Detect. But then I can't lock myself into that move! … And Lily, even if she's a grass type, if she gets hit by that leaf… hold up. … A hit can only work if it makes contact. … The move may never miss, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will always hit its target… especially if they don't know where their target is…_"

Anto smiled nervously as he took out the Poké Ball he was going to use. This plan was again rudimentary and a little sketchy, but if he wanted to win this he needed to be just as creative as Burgh.

Lily came out into the field wearing Choice Specs. She thought it looked kind of stylish on her.

"_Lily! Leavanny has a powerful move that's almost impossible to dodge and hits like a truck!_"

"… **Wait then why did you send me out?!**"

"_Umm… Ohko was knocked out and Takezo can only avoid the attack by locking into Detect._"

"**But how am I going to handle that!?**" She looked really worried.

"_I have one idea…_"

Burgh seemed odd at how Anto's choice to bring out against him. The last fight, Leavanny one shot that small grass type. It may be wearing Choice Specs much like the other two were wearing Choice items that benefited them, but he felt like that wasn't going to be enough to overpower Leavanny, so what exactly would he do?

"Leavanny, String Shot!" Burgh cried out. Leavanny complied and launched a silk thread towards the small grass type.

However, Lily quickly summoned a bunch of Magical Leaves that came up and worked as a wall to shield her from the attack.

"Ahh so you lock yourself into Magical Leaf hmm? Not a bad choice, but not good—what?" Burgh stopped as he saw something weird happen.

After stopping the String Shot attack, Lily started building up more and more Magical Leaves but did not launch them at Leavanny instantly. It looked like she was going to set up something.

However, the thing that got everyone's attention was that Lilly used the stacked up attacks **on herself**.

"What!? What's she doing!?' Pearl cried out as he and the others all watched in shock as all of Lily's Magical Leaves were magnetized to her and covered up her entire body to the point where she was completely under a huge pile of magical leaves that took her shape.

Anto smiled. "_Hope this works! Lily, now! Scatter the Attack!_"

Lily then exploded.

Or close to one. A large gust of wind came up from the condensed energy and leaves blew throughout the large room. The leaves blew in all directions, forcing everyone to shield their eyes in case a stray leaf went and poked them in the eye ball.

It went on for a few seconds until, the energy of the attack died down and the air returned to normal.

Burgh opened his eyes first and could not believe what was in front of him.

There were **twelve Petilil-shaped leaf clones **surrounding Leavanny.

Everyone in the stand immediately stood up to stare and get a better look at the incredible sight in front of them. What had happened? First Lily attacked herself with her own attack then this!? They were confused beyond their understanding.

"What is that!?" Pearl pointed out to the field where Leavanny was just as shocked looking around her to be surrounded at all sides by glowing leaves in the shape of a small Pokémon.

Burgh's laughter and excitement boomed across the room and everyone turned to look at him.

"Brilliant! Kudos! Le Magnifique! You sir deserve the highest praise for one of the most original and artistic moves I have ever seen! Fore shame that Unova has no Grand Festival for coordinators, for you would have been brilliant!" Burgh excitedly framed all the Petilil shaped leaf clones surrounding his Leavany. "You piled up the Magical Leaf attack so much before attaching it to your Pokémon. Then making an explosion to distract everyone watching! While that Explosion was still going on, your Pokémon made more clones of herself with the Magical Leaf attack and surrounded and hidden herself around my Leavanny! That is without a doubt the most creative way I have ever seen a Magical Leaf used in my life! I almost want to surrender right now and go paint this wonderful image on a canvas right away! But my soul cries out to battle to see how far your creation can take you! Leavanny! Return this fighting spirit in kind! Use Mach Leaf on all of them in rapid succession! Find the real one quickly!"

Leavanny moved in an instant, and the clone at her 1'o clock instantly burst to reveal nothing.

However, as soon as she destroyed that clone, the leaves of that clone froze mid air, pointed at her and raced towards her.

Burgh quickly commanded his Pokémon to use Protect and the energy field appeared to block the attack.

Anto saw his opportunity and quickly yelled before the first leaf made contact. "_Now, before the shield fails!_"

All of the clones exploded, revealing Lily at Leavanny's five o clock position. However, all leaves suddenly aimed at Leavanny and sped toward her.

The first wave made contact with the shield and it easily dissipated right after the first attack. Burgh's mind raced as he saw all leaves from the other eleven positions swarm immediately before the first wave ended. Making it Impossible for Leavanny to shoot an attack before the Protect barrier fell.

The moment the Protect ended, Leavanny was carried into the sky with a storm of magical leaves and was made crashing down like a meteor back into a ground with a strong tremble that caused the entire building to shake. It lasted several seconds as the swarm of Magical Leaves showered over the area like water being poured over an object—but far more powerful damaging.

As the last of the leaves slowed down as the fierce gales ended, Lily gasped for breath trying to control so much of those attacks, even with the Choice Specs greatly increasing her power over ranged attacks.

But it was done. Leavanny was out cold on the ground with her mouth filled with leaves.

"_2-0! HA! Complete Reversal!_" Anto cried at the score. "_Way to go Lily!_"

The shiny grass type sat down tired. "**That… that was actually pretty cool. Tiring as all freak… but cool.**"

Burgh came up to them, returning Leavanny back into his person before smiling a huge smile to his opponent.

He fished his pockets and revealed the Insect Badge. "Please, accept this badge. No one deserves this badge more than you at this very moment. Your soul revealed itself during our fight and it was magnificently overwhelming!"

Anto blushed at the comments. He felt like he really didn't deserve them. But he still accepted the Badge and a Hand Shake from Burgh.

He excitedly continued to gush. "It's truly a shame you suck at artistry; the art world has been robbed of such a creative soul!" He chuckled.

Even when praised, Anto still get's the short end of the stick.

If he was a cartoon, a vein would appear on Anto's forehead on top of his smile for the hidden insult. But instead, he just decided to shake his hand… harder.

"Oww. Anto, you can let go now. Ow. Ow! OWOW! Sorry! Sorry!" Burgh cried as he tried to pry his hand out of Anto's grip.

Anto begrudgingly let go before looking into his third badge. As he watched the gleaming metal symbol, he couldn't help but wonder if his battles would only get harder.

Meanwhile, Tracey and Summer where cheering wildly for their friend. Pearl and Dia seemed utterly shocked while Wes and Platinum simply clapped at the battle in front of them.

"**Go friend Lily!**" Flow cried out in mental joy from the bleachers she was sitting on. Even Dia's Munchlax, Lax and Pearl's Chatot, Chatlord, also seemed excited.

That is… until the Sinnoh group all had their minds click in realization in something.

"Summer…" Platinum asked hesitantly before finally noticing the elephant in the room. "Did your Pokémon just talk? And isn't that an Ivysaur? Why does it look so different?" She pointed at the Delta.

It was at that moment the other three humans winced and thought of the same exact sentence in their head.

'Aw sugar honey iced tea…'

* * *

**{Author Notes.}**

**Haha! You didn't think Anto would be the only one with clever tricks and schemes?**

**I thought it would make things way more interesting to have gymleaders and other trainers come up with amazing strategies and how moves are used differently. After all, the Dex Users in the manga can also show off using attacks differently, so why not gym Leaders and other trainers?**

**Another thing too. I've played a few competitive pokemon games and dear lord they are hard or I'm stupid! How the heck do they do that!?**

**After playing a few matches though, I really enjoyed using the choice items and I wondered if there was a way I could incorporate that into the story. Competitive play also has a lot of weird pokemon. Which also gives me ideas in how stranger pokemon battles may go! (The mono battles also give me ideas for the up coming gyms...)**

**Besides, if you guys have ever read "Ashes of The Past" by **Saphroneth** (By the way read it. It's the best Pokémon Fic I've ever read and I based some elements of that into this story.) I absolutely loved how he made Ash and the main cast strong, but even everyone else was just as strong as them. **

**I wanted to replicate that a bit. If Anto and the others are going to kick it up a notch, so will all the enemies and friends!**

**Of course normal battles will still be normal, but more eventful battles and skirmishes will take on some more creative styles of fighting I hope you'll enjoy.**


	16. Ep 16: Waaiit, That Looks Familiar!

**{Author's notes.}**

**Hey folks this chapter is going to be a little different from the others, and I'm sorry for this one taking a bit long. I have more popular stories I also enjoy writing. And there are the other stories I need to heavily work on.**

**The POV Jumps around a bit, and I'm going to try and cut down on the third POV for this chapter since I kind of want to explore other characters as well. **

**Another note is that this chapter is slight filler-ish so there maybe some strange attempt at making jokes by poking at some rather obscure things.**

**Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

Episode 16 Anto (Jones) and the Temple of Boom!

They say no one will hear you scream… in certain scenarios created by villains… or in space.

But for Anto, no one ever hears him scream because he's mute.

It's a shame too. His scream would be heard easily since as of now he was being chased by a large boulder while running down a bobby trapped, underground, millennia year old ruin while holding a strange hat and a whip all while holding a rather priceless looking artifact.

If one was not completely sane, they could hear a very familiar song play in the background that was quite familiar to that famous adventurer/professor/treasure hunter with catchy music.

How this all happened… well…

* * *

{Takezo POV}

He had always instructed me the same motions.

"_A master who has practiced one swing a thousand times is stronger than a master who has only practiced a multitude of fighting moves once._"

I hadn't originally understood what that saying meant. But in time, I realized that with each swing, be it practice or real battle, it improved my stance, speed, and power greatly as opposed to using a new technique the first time where it would be flimsy and poor.

With this in mind, I do what I was instructed to do… up… down… right… left… block… up… down… right… left… block…

I continued my stances while sensing Ohko stare at me.

"**By the way, Tak,**" I suppose that is far more preferable than him addressing me as 'Sword dude' all the time. "**Watcha doing?**"

I felt Sentinel, originally eating some human bagels, turn his head toward me after Ohko asked his question. "**Yeah, what exactly are you doing with that stick?**" He echoed.

"**It's called bushido. A martial form created by humans on how to wield a blade…**" I answered back as I continued my stances.

"**Boo-She-Dough?**" Sen and Ohko repeated as they tilted their heads.

"**Close enough.**" I replied as I continued.

"**Huh, where did you learn that?**" Wartortle asked me as he eyed my stances carefully. "**I was forced to watch countless screens of fighting forms, yet your movements seem more natural, and you're not even a fighting type.**"

"**I learned how to pick up a blade the moment I was born. As for your comment on my typing, I was also taught that just because we are born to do certain things, doesn't necessarily mean we are restricted to what our body limits.**" I returned his question.

"**So where did you learn all those things?**" Ohko questioned.

A surge of memories filled me as soon as he finished, of a time that felt simpler than right now. "**I learned it from someone I met before meeting all of you.**" I swung my blade once more, my body being accustomed to such movements as if they were second a nature to me.

I sensed Umbreon turn the corner. "**Hey party, we got word from our taller, bipedal servants that we're going to leave soon, so be ready.**"

Sen, despite lacking an actual face, expressed confusion. "**Why are you calling them servants?**"

"**They give us free food all the time don't they? And** **hey, you don't see us cleaning their poop.**"

That… is a unique way to see it.

Everyone makes their way while I practice my stances for one more cycle before leaving.

Wait, I do believe it is time I started practicing that…

* * *

{Summer POV}

"This next route leads to a desert…" Tracey repeated as we stood in front of the gate before Route 4.

"I've been in a desert my whole life. Sand storms are bad, but I've seen much worse." Wes stated as he readied his visor. He even had Umbreon and Espeon out. It was weird to almost have them see a raging sand storm be the equivalent of a snow day to the Orreians. I mean, I really have trouble cleaning myself after that one mission in the desert…

"**Aww, I thought for a second it would be those yummy cones and bagels we ate before coming here…**" Flow spoke as I carried her in my arms. Pokémon Rangers aren't allowed Poké balls, but we are allowed more than several Pokémon partners. Which reminds me… I haven't seen my Staraptor in so long. I hope Ben's taking good care of him. I miss sailing the blue skies on his back…

"I think your thinking of desserts, not _desert._" I told her.

"**What's the difference? They sound the same.**"

Err how exactly do I explain our language phonetics to a Pokémon? "Well… ah! For desserts or sweets, you can spell it Stressed backwards!"

Everyone suddenly looked at me weirdly.

"That sounds depressing," Wes noted. "Where did you hear that from?"

"It's not depressing! It's clever! My mom told me that so I wouldn't eat too much sweets!"

Why are Tracey and Anto looking at me like that? It really did work!

Wes started cackling like a mad man—which by the way makes him look stupid. "Oh and you wonder why I keep calling you a nerd." He laughed as he, Tracey and his two Eons made their way to Route 4.

Inner peace Summer… Inner Peace… find your happy place, a place where you can smother Wes in his sleep—wait, no I must find a better way to express my feelings to people I dislike. Like Ben does! He always tries to help people, and if Red Eyes and Blues Eyes were any indication, they become great people when shown kindness… well kinda. But they're definitely better than Wes!

I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Anto giving me a nervous smile.

"_You ok?"_

"I'm so getting back at him..." I gritted before correcting myself. I sighed then placed on my goggles. Then I also placed some of the free goggles for Pokémon and trainers the Route 4 gate hands out on Flow since I couldn't use a Poké Ball.

Anto placed on his own goggles while bringing Lily out then giving her one.

"Huh. Anto, why are you letting Lily out?"

"_Paranoia. Ever since I was attacked by a clown, keeping someone out tends to really help one's chances of not being kidnapped by a multibillion dollar corporation._"

"**Also, he said that it was technically my turn to walk around freely for a while. … Sucks that it's timed with me having to brace a sandstorm. Can I switch with Sen?**" Lily asked.

Anto sighed before walking back up to the counter lady and asking for another spare… well he would have done that if he didn't forget he was mute and that the psychic link was only to the four of us.

"Sir? … May I help you?"

The loud noise of Anto face palming himself sounded pretty painful, especially with that echo... and the way he's rubbing his head…

[Later…]

"**Does anyone else find this weird?**" Sentinel asked as he held out the goggles out in the storm. "**For some reason, when I put these goggles on during this storm, I'm fine. But when I remove it, suddenly I feel buffeted every few seconds. I don't even have eyes anymore!**"

He does have a point… I mean you'd think as a ghost type, he would just phase through the storm or something, I mean they can phase through normal and fighting attacks, but how come they can't phase through dust if they can phase through walls?

"_You don't have ears either, yet you can hear us just fine._"

"**Not the point, Anti-Labcoat,**" Sen apparently called Anto. "**How the heck am I even using these in the first place!?**"

"_I'm more surprised you seem to be questioning that. I'd thought you would know more about yourself than… well the rest of us._"

"**The only thing I learned was how to hurt people. Never really focused on anything else—you know? The whole, undying rage and hatred to all those around me sort of prevented me from paying attention to the back of my own hand.**"

I actually winced when he talked about such a cruel time, but apparently Anto took it in stride. "_Well admitting you have an anger management problem is the first step to getting rid of it._" Anto wryly stated.

Sentinel summoned a Shadow Claw "**I find getting rid of the source of anger a much better form of relief.**"

"_Well in society, what you just said is a really big No-No. Don't do that._"

As I watched the two talking back and forth, I realized something…

Was Anto trying to rehabilitate a blood hungry Pokémon? It was actually kind of strange how… accustomed Anto was to dealing with Sen who actually seemed a little… twitchy. While he didn't exactly have his memories, she did know that in most movies at least that amnesia doesn't do much in actually changing a person's character. If that was still true in real life, Anto is a rather strange boy character wise in taking this all in stride and seemingly enjoying this…

Suddenly the storm seemed to get stronger… wait a sec—why is it getting even worse!?

"…uys!" I barely hear Tracey's voice! What's going on! I-I can't even see Anto and Sentinel anymore!

I honestly thought things couldn't get any worse, but the sudden earthquake beneath my feet made things so much worse.

The last thing I felt was falling down, clutching Flow in my arms as much I could as the ground beneath us suddenly failed.

* * *

{3rd Person POV}

"**Hey! Wake up! Come on Anti, wake up!**"

Anto felt his head throb for some reason. Slowly, he got up and noticed everything was rather dark, he only saw a little light because Sen's ghost flame was dimly lighting the area.

"_W-what happened?_" Anto asked as he got up.

"**The ground beneath us opened up after an Earthquake move.**"

Anto snapped himself together at what Sen said. "_Wait, a Pokémon did that?_"

Sen grinded his fangs angrily. "**Trust me, Anti, almost every move in existence was used on me to get me knocked down. I can recognize a natural and a move Earthquake from a mile away.** **I also saw that Sandstorm pick up, it was also a Sandstorm move added into the natural one.**"

"_Who did that?_" Anto asked as he dusted himself off.

"**I didn't see.**" Sen shrugged. "**While we were falling, I had to figure out a way to save you. I couldn't levitate like most ghost Pokémon, but I could still phase through the ground and enter the shadows. As soon as I grabbed you, I had to phase us both into the shadows before coming back up here. Pretty much destroyed the momentum with that.**"

"_Good thinking._"Anto thought, but then checked his body, he felt slightly tingly all over his body. Turning into shadows must have done something to him.

Then Anto sighed as he tried to look around, but to his dismay, he couldn't see anything beyond the dimly lit area by Sen's ghost flames.

Anto thought for a second and took out his three other Pokémon.

"**It's night already?**" Ohko asked.

"_To be honest, I don't know…_" Anto answered before briefly explaining everyone what happened and where they were. "_Look at the ground beneath us; it's stone. And it doesn't feel like an underground cave, so I don't really know where to go or where the others are…_"

Takezo glanced around. "**This cave… it looks man made, but older…**"

Anto perked up at what Takezo said. "_An old, man-made cave? Wait a sec I remember the Attendant at the Route 4 gate saying there were ancient Ruins nearby Route 4. We must be there! I remember there being an exit and entrance back to the surface but…_" Anto glanced back at Takezo. "_Wait, how did you see the room around you?_"

Takezo motioned to his eyes. "**Perhaps it goes back to my species, but I appear to have a sharper sense of sight. This place does not look dark too me at all, and I can see quite fine.**"

"_Ahh, think you can lead us out then?_"

"**That should not be a problem. Simply follow me; I see a path up ahead.**" Takezo started off and walked ahead of everyone.

As they kept walking they all started to see another pair of lights in the distance, it was dim, but it didn't look like sunlight nor could it be since the sandstorm shouldn't have let up yet even if there was a Pokémon manipulating it.

As they got closer though, Anto's group was surprised to see a torch lit room. Anto briefly wondered if all these fire were set recently since he was surprised fires could actually last this long underground. Nevertheless, he was actually able to see the strange ruins in better light.

For one, he actually was right, he was in the Desert Resort where travelers would stop by, or at least the ruin part. He saw the walls had a lot of strange symbols and glyphs depicting people and Pokémon of old. He seemed to notice the Sun was a rather constant symbol among the ruins along with some kind of line of people doing something weird.

The bad news was that he was obviously in the part where no one had reached yet due to the amazing lack of traces of living beings being here.

"_Well at least now I can see better._" Anto exclaimed as he looked around to see any way out of this single path.

"**Huh, are those people depicting a dance?**" Lily asked as she stared at the line of people. It was then Anto realized they weren't a line of people but an instruction that showed movements step by step.

"_I kind of wonder who they were. By the look of all the suns in the picture they must have really worshiped the sun._"

"**Why would they worship the sun? I mean, I like it as much as anybody, but I'm not gonna grovel on my knees."** Sen asked.

"_Culture is different. Who knows what they believe at those times?_"

Ohko pointed right behind Anto. "**Why don't ya ask him?**"

Everyone snapped their heads towards where Ohko was pointing.

"_WAH!?_" Anto yelped as he staggered back a bit.

There was a freaking skeleton splattered right behind of all, it didn't looks like an ancient skeleton, it looked like the skeleton of some foolish adventurer that got trapped here—a fate Anto might be sharing soon if he didn't get out!

"**Ohko that is a skeleton. That poor man is dead.**" Takezo told him.

Ohko shrugged then motioned to their Dragon Ghost ally. "**So?** **Isn't it the same with Sen here?**"

It was then Anto realized that He had been walking right next to an undead-dragon-skeleton unnerved, but a real skeleton had just almost scared his pants. Dang, he was a weird kid.

"**Hey! I'm not dead! … I think…**" Sen wondered unsurely.

"**Aren't all Ghost Pokémon undead?**" Lily asked.

"**But… I was born like this…**" Sen added in. "**So was I born… undead?**"

Deciding to stop this train of thought, Takezo spoke out. "**I hate to sound disrespectful, but perhaps we can take the belongings of this person. We'd probably put more use to whatever he has left than… he.**" Takezo noted.

Anto sighed but he had to agree with what Takezo said. He just hoped he wouldn't be cursed or whatever for rummaging for his stuff. Carefully making sure that the skeleton wasn't going to jump him somehow, Anto found the following items:

A familiar looking adventurer hat that despite its dust, still looked to be in good condition; dusting that off and placing it on his head for the fun of it, Anto looked at the next item which was a whip.

…

The last item looked to be some kind of gold slab.

"**Ooo. Shiny. What is that?**" Sen looked glanced toward the item.

"_Dunno._" Anto saw his reflection on the slab as he wiped of the dust. "_I wonder where this came from?_"

"**I don't know, but we should probably keep moving.**" Takezo reminded them.

The five made their way, but the more they kept moving, the more the ruins around them looked fresher, more preserved. But as the same time, the cold around them felt colder.

It came to the point they had reached a dead end… and some kind of altar.

There was a pedestal that held an item that seemed of great importance.

"**What is that?**" Lily asked hypnotically as she stared at the item enshrined in front of a large sun symbol.

Anto seemed rather excited since he recognized the object. "_Wow! Lily this is a Sun Stone! You can evolve with it!_"

"**Really? Then what are you waiting for?!**"

Anto went up and _took the untouched object of worship off the ancient altar._

He tossed the Stone to Lily and in a bright flash of light she evolved and grew into a Liligant.

"**Wow!**" Lily twirled in her new body. "**This feels so much better—oh, I think I know a bunch of new moves now.**" She exclaimed as she placed her hand on her head.

"_Glad you like it._" Anto thought out happily. Maybe he could try out new fusion moves with Lily.

Ohko also seemed quite pumped. "**Wow! Tight! Ya just grew taller!**" Then he looked to Anto. "**You too boss!**"

"_**Eh?**_" Everyone else reacted to Ohko's odd comment.

"_Ohko, what do you mean I grew up? I'm still the same._"

Ohko pointed behind him. "**But you're taller than that pedestal now.**"

Everyone snapped their heads behind Anto. It wasn't that Anto grew taller; it was the pedestal that was sinking.

A loud clicking noise echoed through the ruins as the pedestal sunk completely into the ground.

"_Oh lord it's booby trapped!_" Anto exclaimed as the wall behind the pedestal opened up. The ground shook violently and from the shadows, a large boulder was rolling towards them!

{Recommended Music: Indiana Jones Theme Song (Dooo itttt!)}

"_**AAAHHHH!**_" Everyone screamed as they ran away from the boulder.

The walls ahead of them also started to move! And a large wall descended from above and prevented them from escaping back from where they entered.

The group did notice that a new path way opened up, but it looked like it went even further below the surface. However, since they didn't have any other choice, they all ran down the new path, but the Boulder still chased after them!

"_I can't believe it was booby trapped! Why didn't I see that coming!?_" Anto cried out as he ran as fast as he could. Seriously, how unlucky could he get!?

"**Wait! I just realized something!**" Sen shouted out as he ran with them.

"_What is it!?_" Anto asked hurriedly.

"**I'm a ghost, I can just phase through that.**" Sen calmly explained before stopping and allowing himself to phase through the speeding boulder.

"_WHAT!? HEY! WHAT ABOUT US!?_" Anto cried out. Man, he felt like he just got betrayed by his lifelong friend for almost no apparent reason!

Anto's other Pokémon looked at each other.

"**Do not worry Anto, I believe I am small enough to squeeze through the corners and not get hit by the boulder—I'll go get Sen.**" Takezo quickly said before Anto could even react, and slid into a corner to slip by the boulder.

"_TAKEZO!? WHHHYYY!?_"

Lily understanding her new body better, executed a rather mean plan. "**Anto, thanks for teaching me how to use Magical Leaf!**"

Lily suddenly summoned a bunch of leaves in front of them, and the moment Lily stepped on it; it catapulted her over the boulder and into safety

"_THE HECK!?_" Anto cried out. Weren't these guys supposed to be his friends?! Why did they freaking ditch him?!

"**Don't worry Boss!**" Anto almost felt like crying at Ohko's loyalty. "**I got yo baAAAAACCCCKKKKkkk….**"

Did… did Ohko just fall down a trap hole?

Anto shed a single tear before running all alone about to be probably crushed by a fast moving boulder.

Anto looked ahead and saw the path ahead of him looked like it was destroyed and there was a huge gaping hole in the path. However, there was this left over boulder protruding out of the wall.

An insane idea formed in Anto's head.

Anto got out the whip as he got closer to the abyss. With every ounce of his strength he had left, he ran even faster before jumping off the ledge.

Time slowed down as Anto flicked the whip towards the protruding rock.

The Whip raced toward the rock and as it got closer, Anto's smile only grew wider.

Then the whip cracked at the rock and it shattered into a million pieces.

Anto had made a horrible face much like a straight man from an anime comedy before gravity started to catch up with him.

"**Magical Leaf!**"

Anto then found himself by carried by a pile of magical leaves. He turned his head back to where he was originally and saw Sen, Takezo, and Lily waiting at the edge.

Rather than bringing him to them, Lily summoned more leaves for the three of them and motioned them across the abyss where the boulder already fell.

When they got across, Anto was in tears. "_Why did you guys abandon me!?_" Did he not just make a rather epic speech about not abandoning someone recently?

"**We didn't abandon you per say… we simply positioned ourselves differently to help you.**" Takezo rephrased, which made the other two nodded their heads vigorously in agreement.

"_You guys are jerks. At least Ohko didn't abandon me! … On purpose._"

Sen looked around. "**Where is the blue guy anyway?**"

"_A trap door opened underneath him! I'm worried where he could be right now…_"

"**We'll have to just keep faith that he can handle himself. He is one of our best fighters after all. In the meantime, we must be careful. If Ohko really did fall through a pit trap there may be more traps ahead of us—**"

Takezo was interrupted by a loud thud sound coming from the ground ahead of them.

The ground shook several times before it started to crack. After a rather powerful shake, a familiar blue fist broke out of the ground before and made a hole appear. Ohko climbed out and saw everyone just fine.

"**Yo folks!**" He happily said as he got himself out of the hole. "**You ain't dead!**"

However, when he made one step towards them, the ground beneath him gave way and made a loud click noise, as if he had just activated a switch.

Anto shook his head in disbelief that this was happening. "_That's just not fair…_"

The walls beside them opened up to reveal countless holes that shot out spears! One of them came dangerously close to impaling Anto.

Suddenly even more spears shot out and the five had to start moving to avoid being impaled.

"_What did I ever do to deserve this!?_" Anto whined in complete honesty as he ducked and bobbed from the spears going approximately one hundred miles per hour.

[Later… (You can also end the music here if you want.)]

Anto, along with his four Pokémon, found themselves gasping for breath.

Somehow, after getting out of the hallway of spears, they had stumbled onto a room where there were these huge statues of Darmanitans that shot out flamethrowers, but then they went out of the frying pan and into a sealed room where they (Except Sen really) almost drowned until Ohko broke the wall by smashing it in one blow, yet ended up in another hallway with a collapsing floor and had to out run gravity…

And lastly they had just gotten out of another hallway with a giant boulder chasing them again with spears launching from all sides of the walls with occasional flame throwers mixed in that had much deadlier pitfalls, giant blade pendulums, and elaborate and intricate traps that involve pieces of the wall crushing on top of them if one of them stepped on a sun symbol.

… It's a freaking miracle they are all alive right now.

"**I… I can't believe I'm alive…**" Sen did not notice that statement did not completely fit with him. He also didn't care, and he also did not notice that there were several Spears that were impaled to his back, but he also didn't care about those. "**I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the lab.**"

Lily was sprawled on the floor panting for air. "**I might join you for that offer…**"

"**We must at least be thankful we survived that…**" Takezo gasped heavily.

"_The worst part is that I have a nasty feeling this isn't even over… hold still Sen,_" Anto weakly mentioned before trying to pull out one of the spears.

The previous three groaned at the thought of going through something like that again.

Well…

"**WOOHOO! THAT WAS AWSOME!**" Ohko, despite having taers and holes on his cloak, seemed rather excited and pumped. "**Let's do all that again!**"

"**Ohko stop somehow making things worse.**" Lily weakly demanded.

"_And please stop moving, you might activate another trap—"_ A loud clicking noise was heard. "_DANG IT OHKO!_"

"**Wasn't me I swear!**" Ohko held his hand out in defense.

The wall suddenly opened up. Everyone tensed, especially when they heard sounds coming from the door and a shine of light come out from the darkness.

"Anto!? There you are!" Summer, putting off the light from the capture styler attached to her wrist, came out from the opening in the wall with flow following close to her.

"_Summer?_" Anto repeated in shock before everyone sighed in relief that it wasn't another trap.

"Oh here's where you were," Anto saw Wes and Tracey step out from behind the doorway.

"Nice hat." Wes added more as Anto realized he never removed the thing from his head.

"Anto are you alright? You all look terrible!" Tracey worryingly asked.

"_We freaking went through a stupid amount of booby traps to get here!_" Anto complained to them.

At that, all of the others stared back at Anto with wide eyes.

"This place has traps!?" Summer asked in disbelief.

"**Wait, didn't you guys cross any traps while you've been under here?**" Sen asked as he tried to remove another spear.

Tracey looked to him. "We've been traveling for a while, but we've never ran across any traps…"

Anto, along with Lily and Takezo, had this tick and twitch under their right eyes. (Since Ohko thought it was fun and Sentinel lacked eye lids.)

"**Oh man you guys missed out! It was hecka fun!**" Ohko jubilantly dismissed.

If Anto had a voice right now, you would hear him do some kind of pitiful version of both laughing and crying at the same time, but he's mute so it just looked like he was chocking on air—which in his case, he wouldn't be surprised if something like that happened to him.

[Several Minutes later]

The group caught Anto up to speed about how they were all scattered throughout here, but Summer was able to spot Wes, and then Tracey after a while.

Anto revealed that he grave robbed someone about the whip, hat, and ancient slab, much to the horror of Tracey and Summer, but to the amusement of Wes.

Now that they were all together, they all decided to get out of here. (And make sure the slab is turned over to a museum or researcher/archeologist, much to the dismay of Wes for thinking he could sell it off to the black market.)

However, as they traveled there was a peculiar thing he noticed about how the group was walking. Summer was walking slightly ahead of the group and Wes was trailing behind them. It almost looked like the two were… avoiding each other.

Anto nudged Tracey before putting finger on his mouth to keep quiet. Wes seemingly was looking at the ruins, while Summer was glancing ahead. Anto didn't even communicate telepathically and just made hand signs silently.

"What's with them?" He asked silently and subtly with his hand motions.

Tracey shrugged his shoulders. He also didn't know, but both he and Anto noticed something definetly happened between the two.

"Do we ask?" Anto quickly motioned.

Tracey shook his head. If he learned anything from the arguments from Ash and Misty, it was to let things be handled by themselves.

"Ah."

The human males all turned to Summer.

"Look!" She pointed ahead. There was some kind of opening that lead to an even greater chamber. But what stuck out the most was that there looked to be researcher equipment seemingly studying some of the glyphs on the wall.

"Looks like there was someone here!" Tracey called out.

"Who the heck are you kids!?" A different, and older voice called out.

Everyone turned towards the voice. Summer automatically started explaining things before looking completely, "Excuse me sir, but—**KYYYAAAAHHH!**" She shrieked as she covered her eyes and blushed furiously.

Tracey and Anto gawked at the man in front of him.

Wes… "Uhh… why are you only wearing your boxers?" He asked hesitantly.

"To really feel the air of history! It's basic Archeology!"

"No it's not!" All of them yelled. Anto even added in mentally, but the man didn't notice.

"Ugh, it's university all over again…" The very strange Archeologist sighed before looking at Anto. "Nice hat by the way."

The man actually decided to wear more proper attire in adventuring. However, it didn't matter what he wore, as long as he wore _something_ over his body.

The man introduced himself as Professor Enjos Andiani, an archeologist trying to discover the secrets of the left over civilization here in the desert Resort. He had a very… eccentric… personality in learning the mysteries of the past, but Tracey confirmed that his research was very professional.

Since the group had finally found a man willing to take them up, they were in no hurry and decided to listen to Enjos' brief summary of what he was doing. This ruin talked about a very powerful warlord and conqueror approximately 3000 years ago. The thing about this place is that it's supposed to be his ancient fort/castle that has withered away over the course of time.

The five humans and Flow were all sitting on a desk with snacks and some drinks Enjos kindly prepared.

"Now, as you can see, this giant room we seem to be in is actually some kind of altar," He then points over to a large wall where he set up several spot lights over. "There is some kind of missing slab in the wall there that seems to unlock something, but I've been searching for months now and I have no idea where this slab could be!"

The group then turned their heads to Anto, who blinked twice and noticed everyone looking at him.

Anto puts his hand over his mouth as if pretending to cough before taking out the Slab he looted from a corpse—what a respectful kid.

"That's it!" Enjos cried out in joy. "That's what I'm looking for! Can I have it please!?" He asked like an excited child.

"_As long as you don't strip again, yes._" Anto handed it over to him.

"Oh yes! I won't! Finally!" Enjos cried before taking the slab and running up to his set.

Flow stared at Anto with wide eyes. "**Anto, did you just connect to him?**"

"_What?_" He asked. "_Oh yeah. Oops, I've been so used to you guys, I think I did it automatically._"

Flow shook her head. "**That's the thing: I didn't connect you to him. You spoke telepathically into his mind yourself.**"

"What?" Summer asked in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" Tracey added in. If Flow was right, then that would mean Anto's power would be… evolving?

Flow nodded. "**Anto I think you linked to him yourself.**"

Before anyone else could add into that, a loud sound came from the direction Enjos left.

As soon as the slab was placed in, the ground started to shake. Everyone quickly got up and followed after Enjos.

There looked to be some kind of glow in the runes and they kept going upward, making more runes and symbols above it glow gold until it reached the large Sun symbol where it started to crack.

Wes and Anto acted quickly, both bringing out Espeon and Lily. "Espeon Reflect!/_Lily, Magical Leaf shield!_" They both cried.

The two Pokémon complied as the light grew even brighter from the sun and it ended up exploding in a fierce blast.

The two Pokémon were able to shield everyone else from the blast, but as the blast died down, Wes readied his other Pokémon. Anto and the others followed his example and all of their Pokémon got ready.

"**At last…**" A powerful voice echoed through the chamber, out of the sun a giant Volcarona appeared to them like a being from the great beyond. It's very presence lit up the dark ruin as if it was its own personal sun.

Its eyes glanced down on all of them before him, either ants or subjects that's all he saw before him.

"**I awaken. Bow, your god ascends.**" The power in his voice seemed like something even beyond that of Aura or Psychic communication. For almost everyone, they actually had half a mind to bow down.

"**What's a god?**" Ohko quickly asked making everyone but Enjos look at him questioningly.

"**I think it's something…**" One of Zwelious' heads started. "**… That has to do something with being able to bark a lot.**" The other head finished.

Before Anto could even start to question that, he felt a large power gathering up from the large Fire/Bug type.

"Everyone, counter with your own attack!" Wes barked hurriedly.

Everyone that could launched their own long range attack at the large ancient Pokémon.

Volcarona scoffed. "**Be purified.**"

He then unleashed a devastating energy to face all the Pokémon's attacks.

* * *

[Outside on the surface…]

Some tourists and adventurers were looking around the Desert Resort. The surface ruins were old and faded, but they were still enough to capture people's interest.

However, a large burst of flames shot out of the ground like a geyser, surprising everyone and all wild Pokémon in the area. The pillar of flame was so powerful it even stopped the raging sand storm around with a single blast.

As the pillar died down, they all saw a giant shadow cast from the sun. The ground beneath it revealed a large hole that seemed to go deep underground. And the sand around it crystallized and turned glass like, which sparkled under the sunlight.

Suddenly the giant Pokémon stretched out its wings and created a flash bang almost making a second sun appear in the dessert, but the flash quickly died down and the mysterious creature was gone.

Among the crowd, a man with a rather intimidating Tyranitar smiled.

"Welcome back old friend."

* * *

[Back in the ruins below…]

"Is… *Cough* is everyone alright?" Wes asked as the dust settled and the sunlight came back in."

Everyone responded with some kind of groan or grunt.

"I think we're all OK, a little de winded, but OK," Tracey spoke out. "I hate to see what would have happened if we all didn't counter that attack with fusion moves..."

Wes looked to Summer, and she seemed to already guess that look. "If you're wondering, that Pokémon is a Volcarona basically a powerful bug and fire type, but that one was gigantic and probably a really ancient Pokémon."

"You're right." They all looked to Enojs, "If my studies here are any indication, the civilization here was under the rule of a powerful man and his Pokémon, Volcarona who was believed to be a sun god at that age. They were only stopped but not defeated by one of the two heroes of Unova that was with Reshiram or Zekrom, but they slightly point to Reshiram.

Anto looked up to the huge hole in the ceiling with Takezo. "_But where did it go just now?_"

Takezo gripped his blade. "**I have an ominous feeling about this.**"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Sorry for taking a bit longer than usual. But here's the next chapter for P:ABA! It's the prelude to the massive event coming up in Nimbasa city and I can't wait to start it out. For those that sent OCs, now is the time and I am so sorry for taking so long!**

**Also, what exactly happened between Summer and Wes? Who knows? But I figured I'd get to that later!**

**Nothing like friends betraying you in the middle of a classic movie scenario of a boulder about to crush you… *Sniff* I promised myself I wouldn't cry…**

**And there is a lot of meta breaking in this chapter. Even for meta people didn't even know there was!  
**

**Even Also-er, this is pretty much the only chapter before we head to Nimbasa City! For those of you that submitted OCs, welcome to the crazy adventure that is this story! OMG!**


	17. Ep 17: First Impressions!

Episode 17: The pieces have been set.

* * *

Anto and Tracey didn't exactly know what to do. They, along with all their other Pokémon, noticed the split between Wes and Summer.

"_Psst, Flow, you probably had to have been there,_" Anto asked the pink fairy type trailing behind with them. "_What happened?_"

"**Actually, I don't know… I was unconscious for a while, but I think I heard something… sorry.**"

Tracey sighed. "Well hopefully things will get better as soon as we head into Nimbasa City." He hoped.

As they all entered into the city gate, they were surprised to see how full the place was, there was an amazing amount of people despite the small gateway.

"What's going on?" Summer asked out loud.

As if on cue, the four turned their attention to a large screen that had the Logo of a television company known as the BW Agency.

"_Hello!_" An older woman that looked slightly familiar appeared on the screen and greeted everyone.

"_She looks familiar…_" Anto noted.

The woman in the screen went on. "_My Name is Hilda, the president of the BW Company, and I welcome you all to Nimbasa City in Unova for the first ever Worldwide Music Festival! Unova is proud to host a variety of world class musical talents such as the new Jail House Blues Crew, Go-rock Quad, and we even have renowned coordinators/trainers express the importance of social arts such as Fatina, from Sinnoh; Valerie from Kalos, and Even the Champion of Hoenn himself, Wallace and his niece Liza will be making a spectacular appearance!_"

Wes whistled. "They went all out. No wonder there's so many people here."

"Wait, but if there's this many people, where are we going to stay in town?!" Summer asked.

At the realization of that, the four rushed to the Pokémon center to see if there was any room left.

[Later.]

"I'm sorry, but there isn't any room left."

They all groaned in synch.

Nurse Joy sweat dropped after telling them that. "As I said I'm sorry, but most of the room have been taken already due to the festival coming in the coming week."

"Is there anything else available left?" Tracey asked hopefully.

She shook her head somberly. "You might have to try the hotels… once again I'm sorry."

The four sadly left the Pokémon Center.

"_Well, we gotta find some place to stay. Should we search around some hotels and see if there are rooms still available?_"

"Are you telling us to split up?" Wes asked from almost nowhere.

"_Umm, when—_"

"I agree with Wes! We'll have a higher chance of finding a room if we split up." Summer interjected rather quickly.

Anto, slightly overwhelmed, said, "_OK, I guess. But let's meet back here later at night. Say 6:30ish?_"

Wes and Summer nodded once before going their separate ways. Flow, looking apologetic to Tracey and Anto, followed after Summer.

"_Man what got into them?_"

"I don't know, but I think it's best for us to hope they cool down later and tell us all about it." Tracey sagely said.

Anto nodded his head. "_I guess you're right. Anyway, think I can stop by the gym really quick? I just want to take a peek at what I'm up against before going in_."

Tracey nodded, but then stopped. He looked over to where Summer left then where Wes left then back at Anto incredulously.

"_What?_" Anto asked as he checked to see if something was on him.

"Anto," Tracey started. "Wes and Summer were the only two in our group who had psychic Pokémon… but you're still talking to me with both Espeon and Flow gone."

Anto's eyes widened at that. "_I—I am?_" He asked cautiously.

Tracey nodded. "Yes, and it doesn't even seem like its weakening or anything the longer they're gone."

Anto let that sink in. Does this mean he can communicate with people now?

"_Wait, how do I sound right now? Is it still in your head?_" Anto asked.

Tracey thought hard before slowly shaking his head. "Honestly… no. It sounds like it's coming from you, but it doesn't sound telepathic now… I'd almost say like you're a ventriloquist…"

Anto thought about this for a second and this timed he tried moving his mouth.

"_Does it sound like I'm speaking normally if I do this?_" Anto thought and spoke at the same time.

Tracey nodded slowly. "Anto, we might need to talk about this later. There might be more to this power than we originally thought," He sighed. "But for now we need a place to stay for the night, so I'll meet you later alright?"

Anto nodded and decided to make his way to the gym. He took out Takezo's Poké Ball, but he didn't notice that he caught someone's attention as he walked by.

* * *

[With Wes.]

Wes walked around aimlessly down the crowded streets of Nimbasa City, it was pretty loud and cheerful.

"**Wes? Are you alright?**" Espeon asked as he and his brother walked with him.

"I'm fine."

"**Dude, we know that's Wes talk for, 'Leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it'.**" Umbreon added in. Even though he was a dark type, Flow was able to give a hint in showing Espeon how to make dark types communicate, if they were willing.

"Alright then, leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it." Wes told them.

Espeon and Umbreon looked at each other. They knew Wes would be like this for a while, so they had no choice but to wait until he cooled off. They were just surprised he went back into this when he really seemed to be enjoying himself recently.

It was then something caught Wes' attention. As he was passing by a path that had a lot of booths set up, there was this shady old man pick-pocketing a man with his young son ridding on top of him as he was waiting in line of one of the booths.

That ticked Wes off, but he didn't want to make a scene.

As the shady old man and Wes crossed paths, they both accidentally ran into each other.

"My bad." Wes stated as the shady old man simply raised his head to say no harm and made his way out quickly.

"Hello! We have some famous Uncle Bob's Coffee! Two Pokédollars please!" The cashier asked the man with a son on his shoulders.

The man patted himself, but then his eyes widened when he couldn't find his wallet.

"Excuse me sir," The cashier, son, and Father turned to Wes holding out a wallet. "You dropped this."

The father sighed in utter relief. "Oh thank you boy. Would you like a coffee?"

Wes saw the happy look on the son's face and he looked back to the dad. "I'm good. I have some chores to do…" He paused for a second. "… I hope you and your son have fun today."

"Oh thank you so much! Say thank you Leo!" The father motioned to the young boy above him.

The young boy smiled back. "Thank you mister.~"

"It's no problem…" Wes responded rather softly.

Then he heard people screaming in the distance behind him.

Wes, and his two eons raced first to see what happened. Wes was surprised to see that same shady old man knocked to the ground by a deep purple spiked hair, seventeen year old man with pale skin, piercing blue eyes, blue logo t-shirt with a Master Ball imprinted on the torso, ripped jeans, and wore black sandals. Lastly, he wore a large purple backpack on his back.

The strange purple haired teen was holding a sheathed katana (Wes was briefly reminded of Takezo) and pointing his tip on the downed man.

"I saw you pick pocketing that old woman, scoundrel," He almost spat. A fierce looking, Bisharp and Excadrill stood behind him. "Give it back."

Wes saw the scared look on the pickpocket's face. "A-alright! Alright! H-here! Take it!" The young man grabbed it and gave it back to an old woman.

"Thank you, young man." The old lady answered as she took her purse back.

Some police attendants came and the purple headed kid forced the guy up and give him to the authorities.

"I can't believe those thieves," A person nearby Wes said to another person. "What's the point of them stealing in the first place when you can get a job? Those types of people must be idiots or something." The person next to her was talking to quietly nodded his head.

Wes silently clenched his fists, and walked after the policemen.

As he did, he, Espeon, and Umbreon, passed by the purple haired teen, his Bisharp, and Excadrill. For one brief moment both of their eyes met, glaring fiercely at each other before they all walked past each other.

Wes continued walking after the police men. "Excuse me! Officers!"

They, including the pickpocket, turned back at Wes. Wes faked running up to them and gasping for breath.

"There you are Uncle Rodri! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Wes expressed concern to the pickpocket.

"Wha?"

"Kid, do you know this man?" One of the officers asked.

"Oh what did he do this time? I am so sorry! My uncle Rodri is a kleptomaniac! He can't help but take things that don't belong to him!" Wes exclaimed before bowing. "I'm so sorry, I was supposed to be watching him!"

The two officer were unsure, but then Wes came up to the pickpocket and took out a P-DA out of one of his pockets. In the pick's mind, he didn't remember snagging that thing.

Wes opened up the P-DA and it showed his face and name. "See? This is mine. He sometimes takes this from me without my knowledge."

"I don't know about this…" One of the officers said.

"Come on, just let the kid and his uncle go," the other older officer said. "Kid, if we find this guy stealing again, he will go to jail—got it? We've got enough going on as is."

"Thank you so much!" Wes expressed joy before grabbing the thief's wrist and dragging the stupefied man along. "Come on Uncle Rodri!"

Wes dragged along the man until they had turned into a private corner in an alleyway.

"Why?" The man asked as Wes let go of him. "Why did you help me? I'm… a thief that has to steal from others to make by…"

Wes looked back at him and sighed. "… For one, what you're doing right now. For a pickpocket, you're surprisingly humble for saying you don't deserve to be helped," He let those words hang in the air for a few seconds. "Also, when I first saw you pinned down, you didn't show anger or annoyance, but fear. I've seen people steal before, and I've seen people like you… who steal because they have nothing left…" Wes dug his pockets and took out a roll of cash.

It was Anto's. However, Anto willingly gave Wes some money back at Castelia after his gym fight. When Wes asked why, Anto simply said,

"_First of all, I don't exactly know what to do with the money I win from the gym trainers and gym leaders besides healing items, clothes, and food. Second, if you actually have money, you're less likely to pickpocket people again, and this should get Summer off your back,_" Wes remembered chuckling at that. "_Last, but in no way least, I really do think you're a good guy Wes. And I want to help you make the most of your second chance._"

Wes, smiled gently as he remembered his friend. Anto was in no way normal, nor was Wes in any way religious, but he thanked whatever high being up there that he had met him.

He took the pick pocket's hand and gave him the wad of cash. "Here take this. Buy some lunch, but save some money for several Poké Balls."

"Why?"

"Try becoming a Pokémon trainer. It's a little harder… but the benefits overweigh the risks. Trust me." Wes solemnly said.

The man just stared at the cash in his hands. "I-I don't know what to say… no one has ever helped me…"

"That's the thing about help: you only get it, when you give it out to someone else. I learned that from a friend recently," Wes kindly said. "Basically, help yourself and others, and you'll find that more people will be willing to help you. Now stay out of trouble, I'm not fishing you out a second time." Wes said as he and his Eons left.

The man stared in shock before abruptly bowing, "Thank you! I'll never forget this, I promise!"

Wes simply raised his hand without turning back or slowing down.

As soon as he stepped out of the alleyway, he stopped.

Wes didn't move, but he noticed the purple haired teen was leaning right at the corner of the alleyway. As if he was listening to that entire conversation.

"… That was surprising." The purple haired boy nonchalantly said.

"What? Surprised dirt bags aren't all dirt bags? What a revolutionary thought." Wes opened his eyes and looked at him.

The teenager opened his eyes and the two stared down each other.

The purple haired teenager then smiled. "I like you, _Wes_. My name's Arran Valliquete. I guess there is honor among thieves after all."

"Well sorry we can't all be born with normal families such as yourself."

Arran narrowed his eyes. "Don't talk about my family."

"Fair enough," Wes stated as he and his Pokémon left. "See ya."

"Wait," Arran stood up, his Bisharp and Excadrill getting ready to leave with him. "There's an upcoming tournament in honor of the Music Festival, battle me there."

Wes stopped. "Why?"

"Because you could use something to get that bored look off your face." Arran smiled before he and his Pokémon walked away.

Wes scoffed, but looked at his Pokémon. He had to admit, he hadn't had a proper Pokémon battle in a while. And the challenge sounded very interesting…

"**Weird guy.**" Umbreon commented.

"**He still had some kind of powerful presence to him.**" Espeon commented in. "**I wonder what other Pokémon he had besides those two guys?**"

"Dunno… but he did have a point. I think I'll join the upcoming tournament. Can't have Anto have all the fun now can I?" Wes smirked.

* * *

[With Summer.]

"**Summer, is something wrong?**" Flow asked as she trailed with Summer. She noticed some people around pointing at her, but they seemed to assume she was some kind of costumed up Ivysaur.

"… Wes is… ugh!" Summer groaned. "… It's hard to explain really…" She exhaled.

As they continued to walk, she and Flow heard something in the distance.

"What did you say, dang it?!"

"Wah!"

Summer raised her brow and shook her head in disbelief. "… No way… I know that voice…" She exclaimed as she parted a crowd and saw a Pokémon Ranger subduing a bald, taller man. This ranger was wearing a male uniform with fairly tan skin. The Ranger had crystal blue eyes with a hint of brown mixed into it. This ranger had short brown spiky hair with blue highlights across the Ranger's bangs. The Ranger also fashioned a dragon necklace wrapped around her neck with the ranger uniform.

"Oh my gosh, Aster!" Summer cried out to the Ranger, making the officer look toward the voice and have Aster's crystal orbs glance to the stylish girl.

"S-Summer?!" The Ranger stammered before running up to her and giving her a great big Ursaring hug. "Oh my gosh it's you!"

"Aster… ribs…" She sweat dropped at her co-worker.

Aster placed down Summer and smiled at her. "How's it going, BFF—ahh!" Aster yelped, pointing accusingly at Flow. "What is that thing!?" The ranger hid behind Summer in fear of sweet little Flow for some reason.

"**Uhh… hello? … Summer who is he?**" Flow asked.

Aster stopped being scared and then she sighed tiredly. "I'm actually girl." _She_ explained. "I wonder why people keep thinking I'm a guy, not that I don't really mind…"

"Aster, you're wearing a male uniform. That doesn't exactly help your situation." Summer responded to her.

"Ugh! I don't know why they give the female uniforms so short! I have low body fat, I get cold in those things no matter how all-terrain they are!" Aster complained.

Summer weakly nodded before looking at Flow. "Anyway Flow, this is Aster, one of my classmates," She turned to the girl behind her. "Aster, this is Flow, one of my new partners."

"You choose a pink Ivysaur as your partner?" Aster asked before realizing something. "Wait a sec! Summer, how did you know what that Ivysaur was saying?! You answered her question!"

"Huh?" Summer asked as she remembered that she forgot she could talk to Pokémon now thanks to Flow. "Oh well I—wait. … Aster, how did you understand her?" Summer recalled that Flow only puts up the link between the four of them and never anyone else. It's how she knew that Anto's powers were changing when he spoke to Enjos. But Aster? She never heard Pokémon speak before and Summer just realized that she just corrected Flow on her being a guy.

"**Aster!**" The two humans looked over to see a Bagon stomping on the man. "**This guy was trying to escape!**"

"I'm telling ya! I'm part of the Jail House Blues Crew!" The thug looking guy exclaimed. "This is all one huge misunderstanding!"

"Right, Summer you can help me!" Aster exclaimed but place herself strategically away from Flow. "Plus I need to ask what you're doing here in Unova! … And why aren't you wearing your uniform?"

Summer sighed. "It's a long story Aster… but seriously? I think you got the wrong guy." Summer explained as she picked up a wallet near the Bagon and it showed a proper identity of him really being part of The Jail House Blues Crew.

"Oops?" Aster rubbed the back of her head.

Summer genuinely smiled though. "It's really good to see you again Aster."

* * *

[With Anto.]

…

Anto sighed as he looked at the closed door of the gym.

"_Due to the Musical Festival, the gym has been closed for the next two days. Sorry for any inconvenience._"

The sign was signed by Elesa.

"**So what now?**" Takezo asked.

"_Well… I am in a carnival, and I did promise to meet the others later… so how about we look around and join in some of the rides or something? I can't remember the last time I relaxed in a carnival!_"

"**Don't you have amnesia?**"

"_Not the point._" Anto retorted as he and Takezo walked toward some of the rides.

Takezo jumped to Anto's shoulder then pointed to the Ferris wheel. "**How about we go there?**"

"_Seems good._"

What Anto didn't know was that he was slowly being followed by someone.

When Anto finally got his turn to enter into the Ferris Wheel, he was asked to share a pod with someone since the ride was full.

Anto nodded his head and went into the pod. However, for some reason, the man he was sitting across from was covered head to toe in a cloak.

Anto didn't really seem to care, but Takezo felt something wasn't completely right.

"**Anto… something isn't right…**" Takezo said as the ride started.

Anto's mood slowly dropped. "_You know… I was sorta hoping that I'd go a day without something trying to kill me._"

"**Technically speaking, there are days like that… they just don't happen often.**" Takezo rested his hand on one of the two wooden blades he was carrying.

Anto glanced over to the man in the cloak. He was really wishing that it was just a weird guy that liked full cloaks. But now? Something told him he was going to be put through the wringer again.

As soon as their cart reached the top, Anto saw something moving under the cloak of the man.

Suddenly, the Ferris wheel came to a sudden halt.

Anto looked to the person in front of him and swore he saw the man smirk underneath the cloak.

"Greetin', Sub'ject 5."

Takezo reached for his blade as the man took out a Poké Ball.

"_Sunnuva—_"

* * *

"… As daughter of the BW Agency Ceo, do you even care for Pokémon besides subjecting them to Capitalistic Manifesto?" The green haired man questioned her.

A girl with familiar brown hair looked defiantly at the green haired teen. "My mom's company has nothing to do with why I became a trainer—"

KRACKASSH! BAM!

Both of them lost their balance as they felt their cart shake violently. Quickly re blancing themselves, they stared at the window behind the girl to see some boy with short, messy black hair, amber eyes, and a familiar necklace faceplanting into the window with his hands grabbing tightly to the roof. His face looked horribly contorted for smashing into the window with his hands reaching/holding on to the roof and there was some slight drool going off his mouth.

"_Oww…_" The boy somehow said that word clearly to the two of them despite having his face planted into the glass wall.

The girl looked surprised as it took a second to realize why this crazed boy looked so familiar. "A-Anto!?"

"_White?_" That same odd voice seemed to ask as the boy in the window seemed to eye the girl in surprise.

The green haired boy recognized the necklace the boy was wearing. This 'Anto' was that same boy he met some time ago… that injured Ghetsis.

Then something clicked in the green haired boy's head. "Wait, what are you doing here?"

Anto finally moved up, but then a Patrat's head peeked out at them by poking his head upside down to view the people inside. "**Ah, it's you.**" The Patrat said to the green haired boy before turning to Anto. "**Anto, quickly stop flailing around and pick yourself up!**"

Takezo got back up and swung his blade ready towards the cart they had just escaped. The cloaked man and the shiny Beedrill were watching them from inside the cart.

Inside, the man took out another ball and called out a twisted looking Banette. He whispered something and the Pokémon complied, making the man and his Beedrill vanish as the shadows absorbed them.

With the treat of being attacked again gone, Anto sighed before looking back at the two. "_So… how's it hanging?_"

* * *

As Anto got down, he was immediately swarmed by security.

His first thought went along the lines of… 'OH COME ON!? I get arrested for surviving an attack—you know what? Screw it, I should just resign that this crap is just magnetized to me like trouble is to comic book super heroes. Only, my only power is the ability to find out how crazy Pokémon truly are… Sunnuva nut, my life sucks…'

"Stop! What are you doing!?" White cried to the guards right after they had finished 'the right to remain silent' part.

"We're taking this hooligan to jail, Ms." A guard said while child-grabbing Anto. "For disrupting the peace and destroying public property!"

"_And saving myself from an 'imaginary attacker'… Does this happen to anyone else?!_" He told himself.

"Well you are misinformed!" The air around White changed, as if she had become more professional rather than a normal trainer. "This is one of the stunt actors for a live action sequence here in the Festival!"

"He is?"

"_I am?_"

White quickly took out an ID and showed it towards the guards. Anto's eyes widened as he saw that White was the _freaking Vice President_ of the BW Agency—hold up! That girl that Hilda woman… is she!?

"You're the daughter of the President?!" One of the guards cried out in shock.

White sighed before rubbing her forehead briefly. "It's our fault for this misunderstanding. I received word that this performer was not meant to pull his live action stunt here. It's obvious our staff has misinformed him of his duties, so we will pay for the damages done."

"Well…" One of the guards started.

White stepped authoritatively towards the guard despite being smaller in height. "May I remind you that there are other things to tend to? How are preparations for the fashion show later on near the battle subway? And the stage concert for the Go Rock Quad at the sports bowl?! And you're wasting time on a project I'm handling?!"

The security immediately let go of the mute before bowing and making their way towards their rounds.

Takezo, still perched on Anto's shoulder, watched the men leave. "**And Lily complains about us males being strange…**"

Anto nodded and bowed thankfully to White while the brunette simply laughed it off.

"You…"

The three turned to the Green haired man with Krokorok, Scrafty, Darmanitan, and Sigilyph.

"What else do you want N?" White almost glared as she reached for her Pokémon, but N raised a palm to her.

'_His name is N? That sounds more like a nickname…'_ Anto briefly thought to himself.

"Excuse me, but I was talking to him—them." N explained, pointing to Anto and Takezo.

"**Ahh. Anto, this is the trainer that helped you into the Pokémon Center.**" Takezo explained.

At that realization Anto bowed politely. "_Really? Thank you for saving my life._"

White's eyes widened. "A-Anto!? Did you just speak!?"

Anto looked nervous and rubbed the back of his head. "_It's really complicated… but short story: I think I'm psychic._" He said as he spoke to her without moving his mouth.

"You… you just heard him didn't you?" N exclaimed as he pointed to Takezo for Anto.

Anto nodded. "_Yeah, don't remind me. Talking to Pokémon is insane! Especially what this guy has to say sometimes._"

"**Are you truly comparing me to the likes of Ohko and Zwelious?**" Takezo raised his brow at his partner.

"_Hey! I saw you eyeing several Couples suspiciously as we headed towards the Gym!_" Anto didn't notice N tense at the word 'gym'. "_You're still doing that weird thing where you expect people to randomly mate in public!_"

"**You have no proof of this.**"

"_Your eyes are two-thirds of your head, which is one third of your entire body! It's easy to see where your irises are going!_"

"**That is but a theory with no proof. I could simply be looking at something and there just so happened to be human mates in the way…**"

White seemed surprise that Anto… was seemingly understanding what his Patrat was telling him. It was almost like…

White turned to see N glaring at Anto.

Anto leered lightly. "_Don't make me put you back in your Poké Ball…_"

White tensed at that.

"You are one of them? I should have left you to rot…" N stated darkly, which snapped the two from their banter.

"_Excuse me?_" Anto asked as he turned to N

"**Where did such hostility come from?**" Takezo asked.

"You trainers are all the same. Even when that Pokémon saved your life, you capture him and enslave him to do your bidding—"

"_BWAHAHAHA!_"/"**HAHHAAHAHA!**"

N was stupefied. Whenever he would talk, almost anyone would listen to him, enemy or ally. But the moment he said 'enslaved', both the boy and the Patrat burst into boisterous laughter.

"_Oh that was a good one. Enslave? Ha! If anything, these guys mistreat me!_" Anto proclaimed, glaring with a smile towards Takezo.

"**Surely you jest? Who is it that drags all those around him to the most unlikely of scenarios!?**"

"_And who recently just abandoned me in one of those unlikely scenarios!?"_

"**As I said, I was repositioning myself analytically.**"

"_BS!_" Anto cried out.

White almost chuckled despite not understanding what seemed to be banter between the two. In fact, the thing she was smiling about was the shocked look on the usually calm and expressionless, but cynical N. Who just was gawking at the younger boy in front of him, who just shrugged off his accusation with laughter. … That was so different from when Black openly challenged him.

N spoke out of his stupor. "Aren't you forcing your Pokémon to your own beliefs?"

Anto looked strangely at N. "_I think you misunderstood something. First off, I actually don't know my own real beliefs. I have amnesia,_" N's eyes widened. "_Second, I don't know what your deal is, but there's more to people than you think… and that goes even for Pokémon._"

"What did you mean by that?" N asked quickly.

Anto shrugged his shoulders. "_I dunno, I just felt like… you needed to hear that most of all. That there's more to the world than one person thinks, so you shouldn't try to force your ideas on people and Pokémon you never met before._"

N was stunned at those words. It was basically saying that he knew nothing, and that ticked him off once more. But this time, it was much less, and this time he was more curious… right in front of him was not something that only defied his logic, as with his calculations as with the Trainer Black, but it seemed that this trainer completely _disproved_ his ideals by existing.

"Battle me."

Anto tilted his head.

"There is something I must know, and sadly by putting my friends in danger, I must know. Fight me." N stated as the four Pokémon behind him seemingly got into battling positions.

White was about to move, until she saw Takezo jump off and point his blade bravely at all four of the higher tier Pokémon by himself. She then glanced at Anto, who now was wearing rather calm but determined look on his face. Anto then took out three balls, a Dusk Ball, Great Ball, and a normal Poké Ball.

A smile appeared on Anto's face. "_Dude, it's just a battle. Smile._"

White blinked as three lights broke free revealing three strange Pokémon just as unbelievable as Takezo, the sword wielding Patrat.

N was almost taken aback with the new strange Pokémon in front of him.

"_Sen, mind if I ask you to a four versus four?_" Anto pointed his voice towards the odd almost Charmeleon-shaped Pokémon to others.

"**A fight that I can actually win?**" His claws sparked with ghostly energy, "**These punks are in for it…**"

"_Guys, please tell Sen to lighten up._"

"**I thought he was dead, so ain't he suppose to be dark?**" Ohko asked confused.

"_No, Ohko, you misunder—screw it. Look, someone to fight!_"

Ohko's attention span was obviously short as his eyes immediately fell on the Darmanitan. "**Tight yo! Bring it on you dang dirty Darmanitan!**"

"**Hey I'm not dirty!**" N's Darmanitan proclaimed.

N, still dazed, shook his head and pointed to Sen. "W-What Pokémon is that?"

"… _A great one._" Anto smiled at Sen. Who now only felt pumped up for this fight. "_You Ready!?_" All four of his Pokémon prepared themselves. N's Pokémon did the same.

"_Tear the Field Asunder!_" Anto proclaimed in hype—only for Ohko to kick a nearby plotted plant and Sen slashing the concrete beneath him. "_I meant fight them!_" He corrected himself by pointing at N's Pokémon before muttering about never trying to find a catchphrase again.

"**Oh.**" They all said before they all attacked Pokémon of their choice.

White backed off as the eight Pokémon clashed. However, people around gathered around to watch the unfolding Pokémon battle.

Among the watchers, a seventeen year old male with chestnut brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, a black T-shirt, and khaki shorts eyed the team composed of strange Pokémon, and the young trainer commanding them without any vocal commands.

"**Master?**"

The seventeen year old looked to his Lucario, her Aura allowing her to speak to him despite their language barrier.

"Something up, Lucario? And can you just call me Sebastian? You know that master thing still weirds me out."

"**It's those five… their auras… they're so vibrant. Also, no, you allowed me to call however I wish and I choose to call you Master.**"

"Really?" The boy mused, choosing to ignore the second part of that second sentence. "What else can you sense?"

As the eight battled, Lucario pointed to them all. "**I sense sorrow… in all Pokémon currently battling. However,**" She moved her palm towards N, "**The ones on his side have been in pain, and are using their pain to fight against what was wronged against them…**" She then raised her brow as she pointed to the other four, actively working in tandem with each other to avoid, protect, and attack the opposing team. "**The other side has also been through great despair… however, they embrace their suffering and share both that and their joys with others… and they all shine brighter because of this.**"

Sebastian watched the Patrat with a blade dodge a Drain Punch from the Scrafty, only to spin and slash-strike the dark fighter right in the neck, following it up with a series of slashes that seemed to aim for pressure points. He had to admit, that Patrat was very strong or rather, very speedy and skillful even against a Pokémon that was not only fully evolved, but had a type advantage over the smaller Pokémon.

The sword user quickly jumped on the Scrafty's head and used a powerful Thunderbolt right on top of his opponent causing the fighting dark type to stagger and fall from a heavy blow from the Patrat's blade.

"**I have never seen such excellent fighting form on a Patrat of all Pokémon…**" Lucario commented before she and Sebastian turned to the rest of the fight.

The Darmanitan met with the one armed Sawk with a Flare Blitz, but the Sawk only smiled, point at him challengingly, and then retract his fist to meet with the charging fire type. An explosion cloud engulfed the area, but the blue Pokémon was seen flying past his trainer. The younger boy looked back in shock, but the Sawk flipped back right side up and slid on the ground. He looked horribly injured for trying to take on the blow, but he was grinning like a mad man. This made the boy sigh in relief.

As the smoke died down, everyone watching, even the green haired trainer, were absolutely surprised to see over several leaf clones of the Lilligant surrounding the Sigilyph. Also, as the smoke cleared, Sebastian saw that the Darmanitan was lying on its back gasping for breath.

But amazingly, Sebastian was focused on the leaf clones. "Lucario, where is the real one?"

"**I-I don't know…**"

He looked at her in surprise. "What? But you have Aura!"

"**Her Magical Leaf attack uses life force… and she's amazingly using it to make constructs… I cannot detect the real one because all of her constructs are giving off life energy.**"

Sebastian whistled. He had to admit that was creative.

The Sigilyph used a Heat Wave attack to burn down all the clones, but as all clones turned to ash, none of them revealed where Lilligant was.

The pile of ash that was closest to Sigilyph suddenly burst and out came Takezo, dusty but empowering his blade with a dark type move and slashing it across Sigilyph's exposed back and sent it flying.

When Takezo landed back down, he was blindsided by a thrown odd looking skeleton Pokémon and both flew a good distance away, sliding on the ground.

It looked like the older boy's Pokémon were getting their second wind, as they all regrouped albeit slightly fatigued from the coordinated attacks of the younger boy's Pokémon.

The skeleton Pokémon, Patrat, and the one armed Sawk faced the four other Pokémon.

Sebastian noticed it immediately. "Hold up…" He couldn't say more as the three Pokémon launched themselves at the other four Pokémon.

Everyone watched with laser focus on the fight as the Sawk, with his one hand, scooped up the Patrat and threw him like a bullet towards the Sigilyph. The Patrat made contact by smashing both of his legs into the side of the flying Pokémon's face, but even then, his sword was glowing with dark energy and he quickly slashed the half psychic type before bouncing off him and letting it fly away then landing between the other three Pokémon.

Darmanitan quickly tried to use a flame thrower on the Pokémon, but was punched hard by the coming Sawk.

Scrafty, took that opportunity to launch a Drain Punch on Takezo's blind side. However, the skeleton Pokémon stood in front of him, and made the fighting type launch the fighting move on the opponent before him. However, much to the shock of everyone but the younger boy's team, the punch phased right through the black skeleton.

"It's a ghost type?" Sebastian and his Lucario turned over to who had just said that beside them…

A young boy that had brown short cropped hair with light green eyes. He looked to be around the same age and size of the young boy in the fight. He was wearing a light brown pair of cargo pants styled with a dark green loose long sleeved shirt. Over that, he wore a large dark brown vest with green accents that really seemed to tightly hug his body. He wore a pair of black hiking boots and had a black belt that has a small pack on it that obviously carried his stuff in. Lastly he wore a pair of thick brown gloves.

Sebastian nodded. "It obviously is. I've never even seen that Pokémon before and it looks so similar to a Charmeleon."

"That's so…" The boy coughed. "I mean, that's so strange."

Sebastian thought for a second that there was something off with this kid's voice, but thought against it as he continued to watch the fight.

Scrafty's hand was still phased through the ghost's body. Then a smile appeared on the skeleton's features before out of his body, Takezo phased through the Skeleton's body, and stabbed his blade right into the chin of the shocked dual type.

Krokorok launched himself at the ghost type, preparing a devastating Crunch towards the Pokémon. However, the ghost type saw this, smiled mischievously, and backed up. But the same time he jumped back, he phased through the Sawk, making him the target of the Crunch attack.

Krokorok paled as realized mid attack that this was going to hurt, especially when a rising Double Kick was used to close his jaw into another kick into his neck.

"Wow!" The young boy beside Sebastian cooed as everyone around started to cheer at the great battle. "Did you see how he used that ghost type!?" He said before calming himself down and pretending to look serious and uninterested. It briefly made Sebastian wonder if this was one of those too cool guys…

Sebastian smiled and looked to Lucario. "That was amazingly brilliant. Normal and fighting types always phase through a ghost type, but he's abusing that weakness as an advantage… man, and I thought Coordinators were creative…"

"**I see that look. You want to battle him don't you?**" His Lucario asked him

"After this? The kid may not be as powerful as some of the other's we've face, but heck, I think I'm going to have the most fun with him."

It looked like the offensive of the three had just ended because a psychic force captured all three of them, brought them into the air, and slammed them all into the ground. The fighting and normal type crashed hard into the ground, but the ghost simply phased through the concrete. When the ghost came back up, he saw the Sigilyph and the others surrounding the three of them. The psychic looked especially ticked and forced the other two hard and pinned into the ground. The ghost looked around as the other three Pokémon, despite being badly beaten, looked like they were about to enjoy ganging up on them.

And then they started beating down on the Pokémon. Patrat was smacked with a Drain Punch, Swak was whacked with a Fire Punch, and the Charmeleon look alike was a victim off a Crunch move.

"Is that it?" The young boy beside Sebastian asked.

Sebastain looked over to Lucario, who seemed to be focus on something outside of the battle.

Sebastain smiled. "Oh yeah. It's over."

Sigilyph was focusing on keeping the other two Pokémon down when he noticed a leaf fall slowly in front of him.

Then stop mid air.

"**Huh?**" The flying type blinked. Soon, more mysterious leaves started falling on top of him and he didn't even see a tree over him.

However, when all the other leaves froze mid air, surrounding him, he realized something he had completely forgot: the other team's fourth member!

All leaves suddenly surrounded and covered Sigilyph, forcing the Pokémon to break his hold on the other two. Before anything else could happen, he was sidelined by a large stream of leaves that knocked him towards his teammates… then smashed through all the other teammates as well.

The storm of leaves flew into the air, leaving the other four Pokémon battered and withered as they carried by the furious swarm of grass. The swarm flew back down and accumulated behind a positively glowing Lilligant.

"What?" The young boy asked in surprise. "That is a powerful Lilligant!"

"Not exactly…" Sebastian told him. "That Pokémon left the battle early to set up. Considering the way she's moving, even walking with grace, I think his Lilligant knows Quiver Dance, and she just set up _a lot_ of those while her teammates were fighting."

As if proving a point, all the Lilligant did was snap her fingers… then instantly the typhoon of leaves surrounded the opposing four Pokémon—and froze around them. All leaves were sharpened and pointed almost touching all Pokémon's skins.

Everyone turned to the trainers where the younger boy pointed a smile towards his older opponent.

The older trainer seemed ticked but he raised his hand. "I surrender."

That was the cue for the Lilligant to drop all leaves and walk up to her injured team mates.

"Now that was a great battle, wasn't kid?" Sebastian commented to the boy.

"My name isn't kid. It's Jamie." He said rather strictly and almost coldly.

"Oh come on, where was that smile when you saw them battling?" Sebastian teased. "And my name's Sebastian, Sebastian Wong."

* * *

"That was amazing Anto!" White cried out in a cheer.

"_T-thanks White._" Anto blushed at the compliment.

"**You should—**"

"_Shut it Takezo!_" Anto screamed, already used to his friend's antics. Then he turned to N who looked at his Pokémon.

"This… this defies my previous calculations…" He thought to himself. "… Anto was it? I hope we meet again soon." He stated mysteriously before he and his Pokémon slowly limped their way out.

Anto went up to his Pokémon, before they all shared a glance and smiled.

"_HEY! N!_"

The older boy stopped and turned back at the amnesiac's determined amber eyes.

"_Stop thinking so much! Being with Pokémon is supposed to be fun!_"

N stared at Anto in an almost unreadable manner, before he continued walking with his Pokémon.

"Wow Anto, you really handled him." White said as Anto recalled everyone but Lily.

"_Why? Is he bad?_" Anto asked.

White blinked as she finally remembered something: Anto was **talking** to her. "Oh right… how the heck can you talk!? The last time I saw you, you couldn't utter a single word!"

"_Uhh… it's difficult to explain… but it involves psychic Pokémon, so that's why I said I'm psychic basically._"

"I still want to hear it…" White folded her arms.

"_Can we not do it here? And… I don't exactly have a place for me and my friends to stay…_" Anto nervously explained.

White sighed. "Alright, you can come with me."

Anto blinked.

"My mom reserved this huge suite for me, but it's really too lonely. You and your friends could probably squeeze in with me."

"_R-Really!? B-but there's three others not including me! And they're not even counting our Pokémon!_"

White dismissed it easily. "It's fine. My mom spoils me sometimes…" Then her gaze seemed less confident as she looked elsewhere. "Actually… there is one catch…"

"_Oh anything if you're really being so generous! It's the least I could do!_" Anto happily said, but Lily had this odd sneaking suspicion…

"Yeah… we kind of do need another stunt double… and our previous one quit because the stunts the directors planned were… not his style…?" She worded carefully.

"_Sure! I'll be glad to help! A stunt double!? Does this mean I get to be on TV?!_" Anto smiled happily. Maybe this was a chance to get some recognition and have people come to him to find answers for his memories.

He was also ignoring the other messages being said by White's mannerism, speech patterns, and physicality that Lily obviously picked up despite not understanding her without Flow or Espeon.

White laughed nervously. "S-Sorta? I mean yes!"

"_I'll do it!_"

Anto didn't notice Lily facepalming behind him and muttering how men were still idiots.

[Meanwhile.]

"Ey now! I just made contact with Subject five!"

"Really? Let me guess: that Patrat was more powerful than it seemed?"

"Aye… but it was more on the fact we were in a closed area an' he moved around quite well…"

"That was foolish to engage him there of all places. You should have been more patient otherwise we wouldn't have to resort to using this plan."

"Oh don't be too hard on him. He and his friends got me with my pants down. This just means we need the big guns…"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Whoo! Done! I hope you all enjoyed this! All these new characters have appeared! And This saga is going to take a while to introduce them all! They'll play some cool roll into the story and if you felt left out, don't be. I still technically am accepting OC's but they won't be worked in until I plan them in. I have a rough storyline of this entire thing planned out, but it's possible to meet new people!**

**I can't wait for the next chapter where the fun really begins with all these characters in one place! I'm going to have fun writing it!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**I'd like to thank the following for letting me borrow their OCs!**

werewolf35  
Dr. Kitten Von Fangtoven  
azure blue espeon  
May845  
(MangoLimePie)

**Thanks so much and if some of you still want to send an OC then it'll be alright, it's just that you are going to have to expect them to come some chapters in since I plan my story line a few chapters ahead.**

**The next chapter is where soo many characters get their say but not before we check on the main heroes and see how they're enjoying and kicking back! … Except Anto—we all know he just walked into something stupid.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	18. Ep 18: Running Gags Mad Plans

Episode 18: The Calm before the Calm before the Storm.

* * *

Art is the expression of one's soul; the voice if a person's inner creativity. The world is their canvas and they can paint some of the most beautiful and touching of things for people to truly relate to.

Yet Anto was having a horrible time dressed up in Snubull-themed jumpsuit/tights while wearing a terrible luchadore mask all while standing on a thin catwalk over barrels of acid.

Anto was really starting to wonder what cosmic deity he insulted or wronged in his past life to incur such cruel and unusual suffering as he was right now.

"OK, Anto," Anto slowly, you could even swear his neck was creaking as he turned, glanced over to a flushed White who was laughing nervously. "I-I know that this… isn't what you had in mind."

"_Thank you, detective._"

Yep, he said that so straight faced, if she didn't know better, she would have thought he wasn't angry or sarcastic… probably both really. "OK, I promised Director S. Might Nhamalan, and co Director Bicheal May a new stunt double/extra and you just saved my life! So thank you!"

"_All in a day's work really. All I had to give up was what was left of my dignity. Do you want me to rip out pieces of my heart_ _for you to throw into the incinerator when you run out of wood? Maybe surrender my soul as your appetizer when you have dinner with lovecraftian horrors later on?_" Again his deadpan was so great, she might have taken him seriously out of context.

White bowed apologetically to Anto. "I'm so sorry really! But I was desperate and you offered help! I couldn't ask Black because I forced him to be Liza's handmaid—I mean under-under study?"

"_I know that's not a real show biz term. And I have Amnesia!_" Anto mentally screamed back at her. "_How many more a good men must you rope into your sick wiles of helplessness!?_"

White blinked at Anto's rather poetic wording. "Oh wow that was actually really good. Now if only you could actually speak those words you'd make a great wordsmith…" White commented.

"_White!?_"

"Sorry again Anto! You're still a life saver!" White bowed as she heard her name called by someone else away from the set.

As soon as she left, Anto paled as he heard a megaphone.

"Alright! I want this next scene to be played out violently as possible! One of the helpless minions patrolling the cat walk gets sidelined like a bowling pin when the hero comes in his new power boost! I want the minion to be the newest symbol of the word, "Wrecked"!"

Anto stared over to the Co-director's chair before he suddenly heard a heavy thud in front of him. A rather massive and buff, almost robotic like figure descended in front of him.

"**_This time, Champion of Socks, I'll 'sock it to ya'!_**" The robot proclaimed in staged acting before throwing back his fist.

Anto did not remember what happened next except for having a strange sensation of being struck by something heavy and metallic.

[Later…]

Wes walked into the set casually before he heard rather painful bone crunching sound echoing even through the back ground.

"NO!" The megaphone guy screamed. "I need the bone crunching sound to be even louder than that! Try to punch the pathetic minion again, but really feel like he deserves to be hit with the equivalent of a high speed train!"

The Snagger raised his brow questioningly before looking to the sad looking kid crawling slowly in amazing pain. An Audino came up and used a Healing Pulse attack on the kid, healing all his injuries quickly. Before the kid could get back up; however, other people were already grabbing the boy's legs and dragging him back up the set. Wes felt a sense of odd familiarity as he watched the masked minion desperately grab on to the smooth floor, as if he recognized someone with luck that bad.

"Man, poor guy."

Wes glanced over to two people loitering around the corner. One of them was a really small kid with blond hair that almost looked styled as a boomerang or a crescent moon, and wearing green clothes. The other was a girl wearing blue clothes but she was obviously sulking and leaning on the wall.

The small kid continued to comment. "I heard that Bichael May's movies had over the top stunts, but I didn't realize he actually put his stunt men through actual stunts before he has Audino or Chansey heal the guys with Healing Pulse. It's no wonder I always hear how he gets into trouble with Unions and such."

"Stop!" The three of them turned to the Director, S. Might Nhamalan. "I just had an idea for a twist! That one minion stumbles on to the discarded and malfunctioning time hopper and appears in every new area of the story to explode! Someone, attach explosives to that minion!"

Wes blinked. "I always did hear that S. Might Nhamalan thinks of the most unexplained of things… interesting to see him work up close," He turned back to the two. "My name is Wes by the way." He casually introduced himself as the background exploded behind him.

"I'm Emerald and this pouter is Sapphire," The young boy motioned to the girl who just continued to brood. "Don't mind her. She's only like this because her boyfriend is being unfaithful to her."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Sapphire snapped.

"So what are you doing here, Wes?" Emerald casually moved the topic.

"I'm looking for my friend. Though, I have this odd sense I know where he is…" Wes was interrupted by another, louder explosion and the sound of something landing hard on the padded floors.

"Man that is one dedicated stunt man." Emerald complimented.

"What makes you say that?" Sapphire asked.

"I mean he keeps getting back up there without a single complaint. I think any normal person would have complained at least once, but that guy? He hasn't said a thing. He must be laser focused on helping this movie be a success."

"… Or he could be Mute." Wes added in bluntly.

"What?" Both of them asked quickly.

Suddenly, some of the props parted violently and out came the minion looking out of breath, beaten up, and covered in soot. His face seemed to lock to Wes and he threw himself on to Wes' feet, clinging them tightly while shivering in a horrified manner.

"Yep. Guys meet Anto, one of my friends," Wes nonchalantly introduced them to the kid who looked like he was sobbing but was making no sound. "He's mute."

"_WES HELP._" Anto's voice popped into Wes' head, but the Snagger noticed that Sapphire and Emerald didn't seem to notice.

Wes sighed before looking around and spotting something of interest. "HEY EVERYONE! THE BAGEL CART IS HERE!"

His words, much like a prophet, made everyone listen to him and enmass towards the legendary snack cart. The four even heard the directors shouting for a ten minute break.

Anto got up and hugged Wes like never before. … Because had never hugged Wes until this very moment, and with the way he was not letting go no matter what, it was more than likely going to be the last time Anto would ever be allowed to hug Wes.

"Anto—Anto, let go. OK, I get it, I'm cool; it's a gift—I admit— but seriously—let go!" Wes struggled to get the eternally grateful younger boy off him.

Emerald and Sapphire laughed at the two.

"Wow you two sure get along." Sapphire commented.

"Would you believe we just met almost a month ago?" Wes continued to try and pry of the clingy boy off him. "Don't make me pry you off with Espeon!"

Emerald chuckled. "Why don't you tell him why you were looking for him in the first place?"

Wes blinked. "Oh right. Thanks," Wes took out a folded piece of paper and placed it in front of Anto's face. "Hey, Anto, I need you to sign this waiver—" Anto lurched back in panic. "—For a Pokémon battle tournament." Wes quickly finished much to the relief of the minion.

Sapphire perked up at that. "There's actually a Pokémon battle tournament here!?"

"Yeah, I just found out about it too. I was hopping Anto could join as well since he and I never officially battled each other yet." Wes then looked at it again and read off it. "Oh. It also says here that even employees here will be excused for the tournament if they joi—"

The paper Wes was holding vanished almost in thin air as Anto scribbled his signature into the waiver and pushed the paper back to Wes. Somehow defying logic by having a pen with him somewhere among those tights...

"… Great, I guess I'm done here. See ya later when the tournament starts." Wes waved goodbye-much to the dismay of the young brunette trapped in volunteer work.

"Hey! Is registration over!?" Sapphire cried out.

"No… but almost. I think it ends two hours before it starts, so you've got… three hours to sign up still. But I think they're only accepting up to the first 128." Wes explained.

"I totally want to join! I can't wait to see what kind of trainers from all over the world will be like!" Sapphire pumped.

"What about Ruby?" Emerald asked.

Before Sapphire could comment, she was interrupted by a girlish squeal.

"Oh my gosh! That is so clever with what you did with your Milotic, Ruby!" A rather stylish girl with blue hair wearing a dress that looked themed around an Altaria gushed as she talked to a boy wearing red.

"Why thank you, Lisia! I made sure that Mimi is at her top condition 24/7!" The boy showed off as the girl clung to his arm. Wes, Emerald, and Anto noticed Sapphire snarling at the girl.

"Do we need to restrain her?" Wes whispered to Emerald.

"You couldn't if you tried…" Emerald offered.

Ruby then looked behind him to some poor sap carrying a lot of red cloaks. "Hurry up Errand Boy, all the good snacks might be taken."

Anto momentarily removed his mask as he spotted some familiar looking pants. "_Black?_" He spoke to only Wes.

"Why the heck am I carrying all of these red cloaks!?" Black's voice came out slightly muffled from the pile.

"You're calling them red?!" Ruby cried out in surprise. "I'll have you know you are carrying an array of shades such as Garnet, Scarlet, Crimson, and my personal favorite, Ruby! How could you possibly say they're red! Are you color blind!?"

"Are you serious?" Black softly whined to himself before groaning. "I'm sorry sir, won't happen again." He robotically repeated out loud before trailing after the two people he had to shadow. His eyes met with Anto and he mouthed. "HELP ME."

"Come on! The Vice President promised me you'd be great and menial tasks!" Lisia told Black as he sadly trialed after them.

The four of them sweat-dropped as the other three left the area.

"Well Anto, looks like you're not the only one suffering." Wes commented.

"Alright folks, back to your stations! Where's my minion number zero!?"

"Now let me show you guys where to sign in." Wes said rather quickly, motioning Sapphire and Emerald to leave.

Anto wanted to leave with them, but then White's pleading voice echoed into Anto's conscious.

He sighed before regrettably walking back.

"You're a great guy, Anto! Which is why when you die, I won't sell your stuff and keep them myself for sentimental value and other emotional crap people convince themselves to keep useless trinkets!"

Anto just assumed that was the highest honor and morale support Wes could possibly give, which—while admirable—was horrible and not uplifting in the slightest.

As the boy walked sadly back, he walked by a rather tall but beautiful woman with auburn hair tied up in a bun and light blue eyes under glasses older woman smiling back at him.

"Aren't you a kind boy? Going back to something you don't like and seeing it through for a friend?" She giggled. " You remind me of my son… despite whatever character he shows, he's very loyal to his friends."

Anto blinked and tilted his head at her.

" My name is Jennifer Akio," The woman smiled warmed up. "I'll be cheering you on in silence. You can definitely do this."

Anto's eyes lighted up.

Jennifer giggled lightly at the reaction. "For a mute, you are quite expressive. That is so different from my son," She said before starting to leave. "You should meet him one day. I think you'd make good friends."

Anto was grateful there was someone going to help him. That little bit of support from a kind and beautiful strange might have been what he needed… sorta.

It was something at least.

He placed the stupid mask back on then walked back into the set.

* * *

Tracey was looking over the countless fliers and stacks of formal papers nearby White's desk.

The master Suite Anto managed to let them all stay in was even bigger than he originally imagined. This room even had _three_ different large 52 inch screen plasma Television sets!

It was a rather luxurious spot, and while it seemed rude to stay here, they didn't have much of a choice. Last night, Wes, Tracey, and Anto had to sleep in the couch while Summer and White stayed on the beds.

While White was originally skeptical of Wes, Summer assured her he was under house arrest and deemed… 'insignificant, pacified, and domesticated' member of society under the watchful eye of Summer.

Yes, even Tracey noticed the leer in Wes' gaze when she said that, but refused to speak since they might get to sleep outside like she had Black do.

As of right now, everyone except him was out…

Well, the humans anyway.

All of the Pokémon, including his, Anto's, Wes', and Summer's were actually spread out in the living room area of the suite watching the main television.

He overheard them as he passed by. But since Flow and Espeon were relaxing, he couldn't really understand what they were saying.

However, if he did...

"**Ohko… why did you decide to make us watch Johto afternoon dramas?**" Espeon asked as he watched the woman dramatically slap the man… then walk away and slip on a banana peel and fall down some stairs… in slow motion for dramatic effect. "**We can only translate things from organic people. Flow and I can't translate from a machine.**"

The blue Pokémon shrugged. "**To be honest I dunno. I just have this weird cravin to watch these things, ya know? It almost feels like some guy cursed me to watch these things or somethin.**"

Lily and Takezo just flinched as they remembered something from Ohko's first fight with Burgh's Swadloon.

"**Do we tell him?**" Takezo whispered to Lily.

"**Sorry, I'm trying my best to suppress my memories of that Swadloon.**" Lily whispered back before saying this next part, "**Why don't we just watch the scenes and add our own dialogues?**"

"**Ooh!**" Umbreon exclaimed as the next scene showed a man in a Crawdaunt costume trying to dramatically scratch a lotto ticket with his silk-like and smooth claws. He was also crying for some reason. "**Dibs on this one! 'I will get enough money to one day eat my delicious self'!**"

Tracey left the Pokémon to have their fun until a knock came into the door.

Opening, the door, Tracey saw Summer greet him along with a Pokémon Ranger beside her.

"Aster, meet Tracey Skecthit." Summer explained as her friend came closer to the younger man and her Bagon, coming in and walking towards the television.

"Oh wow! I know you!" Summer's friend cooed as she shook hands vigorously with the assistant. "I'm a huge fan of the art work you provide along with Professor Oak's haikus! They're so beautiful!"

Tracey politely answered. "Thank you for that. I didn't expect to see one of Summer's friends so soon."

"Wait!" Aster proclaimed. "She didn't actually tell you about me didn't she?"

"Well… she probably hasn't gotten to that yet. We've only been traveling together in less than a month." Tracey maturely explained. Meanwhile, Summer's eyes widened as she started to realize what she was doing.

"But you know about Ben, don't you?~" The Cheshire grin on Aster's face was hard to miss.

"Oh yes, Summer doesn't stop talking about him." Tracey, while polite, did not realize he just sprung the trap.

"Oho?~" Aster cooed looking at Summer. "Aww I can't believe you forgot about your bestie! But even friendship pales to the power of love.~"

"I-It's not like that!" Summer shrieked quickly.

"I can't believe you still have a huge crush on Ben! It's almost so sad to see you pine for him on those nights we bunkered together and you wistfully staring into the night sky…"

Summer's face turned bright red. "I never did that!"

Tracey chuckled. "How long have you two known each other?" He subtly changed the topic for Summer.

"Aster has been my friend since childhood. We were even in the same class in ranger school," Summer explained. "She's also one of the best friends a girl can ask for."

Tracey blinked. "Oh." He didn't know that Aster was a girl until Summer had just mentioned her as a she. Momentarily, Tracey recalled Misty and wondered why he met more tomboy-ish girls than he expected to.

Aster looked over to the crowd of Pokémon watching television and saw them laughing. She listened in on a bit.

"**Oh hello.**" Lily and some others greeted Bagon.

"**My name is Bagon, and that's Aster.**" Bagon introduced himself.

Flow stood up for him. "**Apparently Aster is Bagon's partner and she's an old friend of Summer.**"

"**Welcome then. Want a snack?**" Sen asked while munching on some of the food from Tracey's pack. "**It's really good.**"

"**Sentinel, how much have you had of that?**" D. Wartortle inquired suspiciously.

"**Are you calling me fat!?**" Sen misinterpreted.

"**Dude, you're a skeleton and undead. I'm surprised you actually need to eat.**" Umbreon commented out.

Sen froze mid munching as he let those words sink in. "**…**"

"**I… think you broke him,**" Espeon then scoffed. "**Bah whatever; be quiet guys! It's my turn to translate this scene! 'Here is my Ultimatum! Paper?! … Or PLASTIC'!?"**

Aster suddenly laughed, surprising Tracey and Summer.

"You've got some fun and lively Pokémon there," Aster said sweetly.

Both Tracey and Summer looked back to their Pokémon, specifically Flow and Espeon who both seemed pre occupied with the television. They both were relaxing and putting down the link, so the two currently didn't understand them.

"Aster, do you know what they're saying?" Summer inquired as she pointed to the Pokémon.

"Oh right…" Aster confirmed. "Well umm, let's just say me going solo wasn't as smooth as I'd like it to be. … I'm just going to say one mission went bad, fast."

Summer was then reminded of how she, Jack and Ketih faced a strong Pokémon and how bad things got. She also frowned and started to worry that the longer that they were gone without sign, the more she feared the worst, and she had just almost forgotten completely about them!

Tracey, recognizing the change in the air and remembering Summer's plight from when they had first encountered the Absol, called out. "Hey! There's this amazing coffee brew down at Regal street that's really good! How about the three of us go and get a drink from there!"

Aster seemed happy to take the change in subject. "I would love to. Come on, let's go." She said as she went ahead.

Tracey quickly turned to Summer. "Summer, I know you are worried, but if your friends are even half of who you are they should be fine. We'll get them back, I'm sure of it." Tracey truly hope he wasn't wrong about this, but for now he just needed a little faith since at the back of his head he noticed how the creature never really seemed to try and kill anyone but Anto.

Summer relaxed a bit and sighed. "… Thanks Tracey… but I worry; you know?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know. I'd be worried sick if it was my friends that were gone and it was my fault. But the only clue we have to finding them is with Anto. We need to wait."

"Thanks again Tracey," Summer said. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

"Well, you wouldn't know where they're selling that great coffee is for one!" Tracey tried to cheer her up. "Come on, I think we kept Aster waiting long enough."

* * *

Uncle Bob's coffee stand, due to the amount of popularity it was receiving, was allowed to expand and be allowed extra tables and umbrellas with people enjoying the brew and other baked snacks along with it.

While Summer, Tracey, and Aster where on one side, exclaiming how this really was good coffee, on the other side of the area, two people were having a slightly more awkward conversation.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… Lucario, help me here."

"**Sorry Master, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to get Raichu?**"

"No! I want things to get better, not worse!" Sebastian cried out.

Jamie looked between his Lucario and Sebastian. "You can talk to your Pokémon?"

Sebastain rubbed his head. "It's not as rare as people think," Sebastian answered. "There are Pokémon like Lucario here, who can project their language through aura. Lucario, give him a show."

"**Hello. A pleasure to meet you.**" Lucario bowed politely.

Jamie blinked. "Oh wow. That's so weird, but cool! Can all your Pokémon do that?"

"Well no. Just Lucario thankfully. But she is my translator for everyone else in my team." Sebastian explained.

"Really? What other Pokémon do you have?"

Sebastian put out his hand to count the other five, each representing a finger. "Well there's Charizard, my starter; Dragonite, she warms up to others slowly but can be quite competitive; Lucario as you see here, the more mundane among my party; Raichu, she's kind of the type to get in trouble because she creates it; Leafeon, always smiling and happy; and Lapras, the youngest, I got him from an egg, so imagine my surprise when he hatched as I was carrying him."

Lucario laughed.

"Hey. Let's see you handle being crushed by almost a thousand pound newborn," Sebastian leered as his steel type before looking to Jamie. "So James, are you a trainer too?"

Jamie nodded, but he seemed slightly hesitant for some reason before sighing. "I've got a Sylveon, Fletchinder, and Golurk."

Sebastian raised his brow at the mention of the second Pokémon. "Fletchinder? Aren't they found in Kalos?"

"Yes. I'm from Kalos. I came here for the Music Festival."

Lucario blinked. For one seconds something in her Aura felt off, but she didn't know where it came from or what caused it. She then decided to look into it later.

"Well, I came here to join this year's league. So far it's been rather boring since I have fully evolved Pokémon… but this Music festival actually seems more interesting." Sebastian glanced around.

A female maid walked up to the two. "Excuse me sirs, terribly sorry, but we are full right now, so may we ask you share a seat with one more customer?"

"Sure."

"I don't mind."

The maid came up and introduced another man to the seat. "Are you alright with this seat sir?"

Sebastian and Jamie stared as a purple haired trainer around the same age as Sebastian sat with them on a different chair. There was also a Bisharp following around and it stared back at Lucario. What really caught their eyes was the sword the dude was carrying. Weren't weapons not allowed or something or was that a prop to one of the booths?

The costumer nodded silently and sat down with a cup of coffee before he drank from it. With that the maid left them to continue her work.

"Uh. Hi." Sebastian started.

"Hey." The stranger answered.

"…"

"…"

"…"

Sebastian coughed. "Erhm! Well my name is Sebastian Wong and this is Jamie Stanton. And you are…?"

"Arran Valliquete." He sipped his coffee.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"OK, suddenly, I wish the tournament started now instead of later." Sebastian sighed as he slumped into his chair.

Arran raised his brow at the mention of that. "You are joining the tournament?"

"Yes, and so is Jamie here."

"Huh. You any good?"

"I… think of myself as pretty fair in battling." Sebastian started.

Arran's Bisharp glanced over to Sebastian's Lucario before looking back at Arran.

"Guess this means that it won't be so boring later on."

Jamie placed a hand on his face. "You could try having a normal conversation with people."

"I dislike that."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I heard after the first round of the tournament, the Go Rock Quads are going to play a concert with their new single, Square Symphony."

"Oh I've heard that! It's really good." Arran and Sebastian said.

It looked like the three boys had something to talk about after all.

* * *

N pondered in deep thought at what the boy said.

_Stop thinking so much! Being with Pokémon is supposed to be fun!_

Being with Pokémon is supposed to be fun!? … Wait… as a kid he did enjoy being with Pokémon, and how soft and kind they truly were. … Come to think of it, when **did **last have fun with Pokémon? Recently actually, when he befriended new Pokémon and played with them. But why did Anto's Pokémon look like they were having fun?

A small thought crossed his mind that he didn't really think about till now. First, he thought that humans treated all Pokémon cruelly and forced them to their own ideals. Black challenged that belief and openly said that Pokémon and humans can work together and become something better.

Yet Anto? He didn't seem to see anything wrong at all. He did not seem ignorant in the slightest—he actually can understand Pokémon just as him! However, instead of N trying to preach the errors of his ways, Anto turned the tables on him and just told him to be happy.

The Pokémon are suffering while at the hands of humans! How could he be happy while his friends are suffering!?

_I dunno, I just felt like… you needed to hear that most of all. That there's more to the world than one person thinks, so you shouldn't try to force your ideas on people and Pokémon you never met before._

N thought back to when both the Patrat and Anto laughed. It wasn't forced, and was simple and pure. Was that really a Pokémon suffering? And to be honest… what exactly did he know about that Patrat other than it being unusually clever, a masterful swordsman, and now following the boy almost willingly?

"**N?**"

N looked over to the bench next to him and saw his Zorua looking at him worryingly.

"I'm fine. I'm just thinking." N petted the head of the dark type.

"If you are simply deep in thought, then perhaps you would like to take a break and drink with me?"

N looked over and smiled at the old man offering him a soda can. Rood, one of the Six Sages, and personally one of N's favorite among them. Ever since he was young, Rood was always like the fun grandfather he never had. Whenever he had duties, Rood would always sneak in something fun in the exercise for him to enjoy. Whenever N wanted sweets, Rood would always scold him publically in spoiling his food, before slyly handing him a chocolate bar when Ghetsis wasn't looking. If there was anyone that was closest to being best friends with N that was human, it was Rood.

N smiled as he took the soda and let the old man sit next to him in the bench. "A drink sounds wonderful. Thank you Rood."

"A pleasure Lord N, anything for the future King," He said before sighing. "… Now would you like to tell me what is wrong?"

"How did you know?"

"If you will excuse me my liege, I was the one who taught you how to sneak out of the castle when you were seven. I was the one who taught you those tricks." He inflated with pride. N chuckled lightly at his friend. It was nice to have someone to confide in when his two female caretakers were back at the castle.

N drank the nice cold soda. "… You see Rood…" Before explaining how a new boy defied his expectations.

"Hmm…" Rood rubbed his beard. "Even the way you describe him doesn't make him sound like a bad child… nor ignorant. In fact, he seemed more concern about you than his relationship with his Pokémon. I can see why you are bothered by it."

"… To be honest, I can simply dismiss him since he actually seems mundane… but why is it that something completely basic as 'having fun' is throwing all of my ideals more out of whack than Black's challenge to mine? Is it because he too can listen to Pokémon?" N asked.

"… To be honest My liege, I honestly don't know. He is probably right in saying that the world is bigger than we give it credit for. However, perhaps he doesn't know how the world works as well if it also applies to him. Maybe you are right and he's wrong."

"His eyes… they were just so simple, so straight forward with those words though. I didn't get the feeling he was wrong." N explained.

"But has he actually disproved your theory? You said something like it awhile back: he isn't disproving your ideals, but exists outside of it—in a sense. You could confront him again later on in your journey. Some questions are not always solved at the first try."

N absorbed his words slowly. "… I suppose. Thank you Rood."

"Please, it is an honor to help the King," Rood smiled gently.

"Lord Rood!"

The three turned over to see a little girl and woman coming their way wearing Team Plasma Uniform.

"There's a monster!" The young girl screamed.

The older woman looked exasperated and bowed apologetically to the two. "I am so sorry my lords! My daughter is just tired from traveling so far!"

Rood raised a hand, motioning the mother's head back up. "It is alright," He turned to the girl with a gentle smile, calming them both. "What's your name young one?"

"… Whi-two."

Rood chuckled. "Such a unique name, you should be proud to have it. Now tell me Whi-two, what's wrong?"

"There was a monster! She was scary!"

"She?" Both Rood and N repeated.

The mother answered. "Actually, my lords… we've been robbed."

The two's faces showed even more shock and panic.

"What happened?" N asked as he stood up.

"A-Several Shipments of Uniforms have been stolen."

Rood and N looked to each other.

"Uniforms? Our uniforms have been stolen?" Rood asked for clarification.

"Perhaps I should explain. We had received a new shipment for new uniforms and we had placed them in the back with some of our papers and funding to keep our booths here in the festival. I left for one second, leaving my daughter in the room to watch. But then I heard her shriek and ran back in. She was screaming monster the entire time and the shipments of our Uniform mysteriously vanished."

"What else was stolen?" Rood asked.

She shook her head. "After checking, it was just the uniforms. They didn't even touch some of the money or papers."

N looked to the girl. "Excuse me. Can you… describe this monster?"

* * *

She walked the dark halls, powerful but professional. Her blonde, gold hair and fierce red eyes stood out from the darkness. Her model like figure looked more like a ruse to those who were not sharp enough to see the deadly serious air around her.

"Ahh! Welcome back, Inquisitor! … What's in the box?" Warden asked.

"It is part of the plan. These Containers hold several hundred pounds of Team Plasma uniforms." Inquisitor answered formally. "Are the masks ready?"

"Yep and everyone is setting up everything quietly. No one even notices us in plain sight!"

"Ey brethren!" Magus jived in with liveliness in his voice. "Guess who recently entered the tournament?"

"Subject 5?" Inquisitor inquired.

Magus nodded. "I'll be settin' up the cameras so we can see what kind of skills Subject 5 be havin."

"Also do the other trainers. They may try to protect him."

"Yeah bos."

She sighed before she opened up a box. In it revealed an iron mask that looked similar to the mask of Entei, but it covered more of the face and looked especially intimidating.

She put on the mask, and the eye lens glowed a scary and deadly red.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**So yeah, small filler chapter. But I tried to fill it up with character development and jokes to make it feel less fillerish. More action and story plots are to come! **

**No lie: as I was writing the fake dramas, I actually wanted to watch something that actually does this. Also, the idea of the Pokémon just filling whatever they want when they don't understand is something I do when I watch something in a different language I don't understand. **

**Oh and yes, I'm making Ohko watch Afternoon Johto Dramas even though he doesn't understand it. THE SMILEY FACE DEMANDS IT! *Cough* What? I like running gags.**

**By the way, eat bagels. This story is really an elaborate propaganda to promote people to eating more blue berry bagels! MWAHAHA! (Joke: this is also another running gag.)**

**They are planning to become less subtle in the future. (expect Anto to wear a bagel costume for an entire episode-probably. I'll work it in somehow!)**

**Also, I LOVED writing the discussion between N and Rood (from Black and White 2 Rood was loyal to N) so I played with this a little and gave Rood a sort of real father or grandfather like figure to N to deepen their relationship. I am happy with how it turned out. It really builds on N's character. I hope it was sweet and touching as I hopped it would be.**

**It's funny how in this story, even the most random of people can have deep story arcs. Weird huh? And what's this looming Apocalypse thing I keep alluding to? **

…

**What do you mean you forgot about that?**

**Oh hey more manga characters! I didn't see them there. Especially Whi-two, the Manga makes her look young around this period, even though she's supposed to be ten in two years according to the game... weird... Oh and Whi-two/(Rosa) is more of an Cameo than a solid story plot in this story. At least in this Saga for now.**

**It looks like Dimension Enterprise (?) hunters are planning something strange with Team Plasma uniforms. What could they do with all of those? **

**One small little note goes to **MangoLimePie, **a good friend of mine here in Fanfiction, he and I like to share ideas, and the next chapter has ideas from him! Go read his stories! They're pretty great! (You can go to his account through some of his reviews in my story.)**

**Anyway, next chapter we get into the battling with all these characters! Get ready! And Let's see how much Anto get's the short straw! Thanks a lot for reading!**


	19. Ep 19: Hero VS Zero!

Episode 19: It's time to RUUUUUUMMMMBBBLLLLEEEE!

* * *

Anto ran across the empty and abandoned southern residential district of Nimbasa City. In the distance, he heard loud clashes and several beams shoot up into the sky in farther away places. It got his heart racing to know that there were already trainers and participants fighting against their opponent for the day. His opponent was yet to be chosen, and with each second that went by Anto just got more and more excited.

The specialized X-transciver on his wrist beeped. "Contestant number 13~!" The machine beeped out. "You're opponent, #64, is in the next turn to your left!"

Anto nodded, he looked to Takezo who nodded at what this meant. Anto quickly took something out of his pocket and handed it to his partner and briefly linked over what to do with it.

Takezo nodded and tied it to his blade.

Anto slid into the next turn and faced down his opponent. Takezo, jumped off, blade ready to for the first battle.

"Go, Dusclops!"

Both participants machines loudly stated, "#13 Anto versus #64 Emerald! Ready!? Battle!"

The smaller green-themed boy smiled. "Well it looks like you got the short end of the straw, Anto! Cause I'm here to win! Dusclops, Will-o-Wisp!"

[Earlier that day…]

Takezo perched on Anto's shoulder viewed the amount of people around him. He especially focused on the blue themed girl that was staring at him.

"I've seen Patrats before but… this one has a bokken?" Sapphire asked as she looked at it.

"Yep. And I think he makes his own as well. They're all pretty good." Wes explained.

"Odd, it doesn't say that in the Pokédex." Emerald said as he looked at his device.

Anto smiled. He knew what Pokédexs were. Short for Pokémon index or something else. Basically they told all basic genetic behaviors of Pokémon, but as obvious with Takezo, Ohko, and Sentinel, they prove that just like Humans, just because they can all do one thing genetically doesn't mean they are only restricted to them.

"Trust me guys," Wes vouched out. "If you're with Anto, the strangest of things follow him around like white on white rice."

The four of them glanced around the Small Court which was only named that in Nimbasa City because it was smaller than the Big Stadium. It was a pretty contradicting name since it was rather big by itself.

This was the place where all 128 contestants would gather for a briefing on the rules of the tournament.

A crowd of people with miscellaneous Pokémon of all kinds were out and waiting in front of a stage.

Out of the stage, came out Hilda, Anto immediately recognized her as White's mother.

"Welcome one and all! Thank you participating in the Music Festival's first ever battle tournament!" She opened up with a mike before the crowd cheered in excitement. "I must thank you all again for participating in this cultural appreciation for the arts. Here to explain the rules is the current champion of Hoenn, Wallace!"

Everyone roared in applause as the elegant but powerful man strode into the center of the stage with his own mike.

"Thank you, Hilda. I must admit that you yourself are quite skillful to continuously organize such a worldwide event. Let us give us a hand to the President of the BW Company!"

Everyone gave the same energy they did to Wallace to Hilda, who waved politely back at the crowds with a small blush on her cheeks.

As the applause died down, Wallace turned back to the trainers. "Now first let me explain the rewards for participating in this event. The first place winner of the tournament will receive a million Pokédollars in check!" He let the crowd cheer for a few seconds. "And the winner also gets bragging rights to be the very first Queen or King of the musical Festival! One of the first world wide events hosted here in Unova! Essentially saying you're one of the best of the best in the world—well maybe unofficially, but no one can take that away from you."

Some people chuckled.

"But I digress. Allow me to explain the rules for the preliminary matches. You are allowed to choose three Pokémon per battle. However, if one of those three Pokémon gets knocked out, you lose and are knocked out of the tournament. In other words, this will be a battle of who gets knocked out first." Wallace explained.

Hilda walked up and a screen above showed and exampled of Unova Starters versus kanto starters. "Basically saying, you are allowed to switch in Pokémon during mid battle," The screen showed a cartoon version of the simulation. "But by doing that, you potentially leave your upcoming Pokémon in an awkward position since it may get attacked the moment it comes out. But there are also cases where you can possibly recall a Pokémon before they are knocked out, so they are risks and rewards for these. If any one of your three Pokémon get knocked out, then you lose. For today you will only have one match to determine who will move on to battle on tomorrow. The matches will only be once per day all leading up to the end of the week where we will be down to the final two."

She smiled and turned back to the audience and cameras. "Now with so many of you being somewhat of a mini League Tournament, where will we hold all the battles? For today, the matches will be held in three areas: some here in Small Court, which we all wonder why it was called such a thing; some in the Big Stadium, it's not much of a surprise really, but for the last branch where we'll be sending a good chunk of you…"

Hilda turned back to the screen and it showed a 3-D model of Nimbasa City. It zoomed into an old corner that showed old looking buildings.

"We made a deal with the Mayor Basa, of Nimbasa City. What you see here is the old residential district that has long been abandoned and evacuated. The mayor has been meaning to tear this district down, but I convinced him to do something else. The tournament will be spent have matches in this dangerous place. You trainers will have to think on your feet and be very careful about the environment falling around you."

Everyone looked around and mumbled. Fighting in a condemned area? That really was different from the usual arena's the Pokémon Federation would allow.

Whoever would get sent to the Condemned District today would have to worry about near destroyed buildings that might collapse if some trainer's battle to fiercely inside a condemned house. Not to mention, if a powerful Pokémon used Earthquake or any other powerful move the other trainers might suffer for it.

It sounded dangerous.

"Oh this sounds like fun!" Wes smirked.

Hilda calmed the crowd down a bit and pointed to a large table with state of the art XTransceivers.

"These are customized XTransceivers just for this tournament. All 128 participants will wear them as proof of your participation in the tournament. The XTranscievers here will be the one to guide you to your battle arena, record which three Pokémon you use per battle, and locate and synch with your opponents. They will monitor each fight and health so use them to your advantage to keep tabs on your opponent's Pokémon and your own! Be ready! As soon as you get one, you will be given ten minutes before your directions are sent!"

"Golduck, if you would." Wallace asked his Pokémon politely as the amazing water Pokémon used his psychic abilities to send all individual 128 devices to all of them.

Wes, Emerald, and Sapphire had their pictures taken and digitized to the screen.

Anto actually sneezed when his flashed, and then showed a deformed picture as his ID.

"_Really?_" Anto complained as he saw the other three snickering at his picture.

"Best of luck to all of you! Have fun~!" Hilda said before ending her announcement.

As if on cue, dozens flying machines with cameras attached to them were sent flying around all trainers, it seemed like all battles would be telecasted all over the city!

"They are really going all out." Wes whistled.

"Well boys," Sapphire started as she punched the air excitedly. "You better start bowing to your new queen!"

"Pssh, no one bows to the queen of delusional daydreams," Wes snarked before spinning a Poké Ball on his finger. "When I get to be king, you all get to be my court jesters."

"Ha! As the _True_ king," Emerald huffed. "I'll make you eat those words! And I'll make Anto my royal advisor. He has the best advice after all."

Anto's was response was deadpan.

All of their XTs started beeping to life, and showed something like a GPS route to their desitnation.

Anto smiled and had a look that was easy to read for all of them. "Good luck."

All trainers, some new, some old, some familiar, some strange, some powerful, some weak, some unseen, but all were ready.

Takezo and Anto shared a glance saying they were ready for this, before laser focusing on the exits in front of them.

As the doors re opened, there was only one thing left,

"May the best trainer win!"

[Current time.]

Dusclops launched a flurry of ghostly fire towards the smaller normal type. But Takezo spun his blade into a rather offensive looking fighting stance and charged straight for the flames at amazing speeds. His blade started to flare black shadows, and swung the blade to cut through whatever sparks of flames getting close to the speedy Pokémon.

"OK that Pokémon is fast!" Emerald as he backed off, "Dusclops, Psychic!"

The ghost type blasted a force of psychic onto the fast charging Pokémon, but Takezo simply held the dark type empowered blade in front of him and the connection broke.

Thinking fast, and realizing the typing of the attack prevented the move from connecting, Emerald acted quickly. "Psychic on the ground! Create a wall!"

Despite the huge amount of psychic power Duclops had, he was only able to move chunks of the street they were in and make them float. However, the ghost type had a great mastery over the psychic move and made the rocks move even faster than the flames. Before Takezo could launch an Assurance, a rock came swooping in, which forced the normal type to back off. Dusclops masterfully puppeteered the boulders, making them like make shift weapons in attempt to crush or smack Takezo.

However while the boulders were fast, Takezo was still able to dodge the approximately dozens of rocks trying to hit him.

"**This is a repeat of the first gym all over again!**" Takezo cried as he slid under a charging boulder then kept running up a nearby empty house and running up the walls to avoid more boulders breaking through the failing building. He kicked off the wall as his speed started to fail running up the concrete and hopped on several of the psychic held boulders until he leapt off like a bullet when he was on the boulder closest to Dusclops.

Emerald smiled. Wes was right that Patrat was amazing, but he definitely wouldn't lose against something this fun. "Dusclops, Fire Punch!"

"_Detect into Assurance!_"

Takezo started rotating his body counter clockwise midair.

Dusclops threw his left arm into a Fire Punch toward the Pokémon. However, Takezo spun to barely avoid the flaming fist. The second he angled himself out of the way, Takezo' blade burst with dark energy and using the spinning momentum, made his blade hit the back of Dusclop's neck.

Dusclops staggered at the supper effective attack in such a unprotected area while Takezo continued sliding away from the momentum and creating distance between them.

Emerald was relieved that Dusclops was still willing to fight, but that wouldn't help. Quickly, he took out his Poké Ball and returned the ghost type.

Anto saw this and did the same with Takezo.

Emerald smirked. He hadn't had a battle this tense since fighting his seniors! "Go Sudowodo!"

Anto threw a Great Ball the same time Emerald threw his.

The smaller boy automatically didn't like how he had to fight a fighting type.

The ground shook slightly, probably from someone not too far away using an Earthquake attack.

Sudowoodo acted quickly and used a Takedown attack on the unsuspecting Sawk—that had one arm! Wow. Emerald shook his head and concentrated, he's seen a lot of even crazier stuff before, so this was actually pretty slow compared to his adventures.

"Keep it up! Double Edge!"

Sudowoodo, glowed with enormous power coming after the flying Sawk.

However, the Sawk flipped midair, slid on the ground, and faced toward the speeding rock type with an entertained smile on his face.

The very first thing the Sawk did when his sliding momentum stopped, was quickly kick off and charge straight for the Double Edge.

Sudowoodo clenched her teeth and ran faster at the fighting type.

Ohko threw back his fist, and Emerald swore he could hear it crack all the way from where he was as it clenched tightly into a fist. The fist burst into purple dragonic energy.

And the two made contact.

Emerald and Anto braced themselves as the shockwave shattered all nearby glass within a quarter of a block-radius.

However, to Sudowoodo's surprise, Ohko's fist was set ablaze once more while it was still connected to her!

Ohko stopped forward, crying out in pure strength as he pushed through and followed through the attack with the second combo, smashing Sudowoodo into an old lamppost and breaking through it and slamming hard into a wall.

Sudowoodo, blinked, slid into the floor and fell into her knees.

Emerald underestimated the sheer power of that Sawk, it was stronger than usual! He quickly used his Pokédex to view it one more time.

"Sawk, the Karate Pokémon. Tying their belts gets them pumped up and makes their punches more destructive. Disturbing their training angers them."

Anto blinked. "_Wait Ohko that Pokédex said you can have stronger punches by tying your belt tighter? I didn't know that._"

"**Really?!**" Ohko turned back to his trainer excitedly. "**Yo, I gotta try tha—"**

It was then Ohko remembered he had only one hand.

"**You makin fun of me!?**" Ohko roared before he burst of from where he was with his fist reclined towards the downed Sudowoodo. Emerald frantically recalled his rock type before she was hit by the powerful anger induced hit.

As Ohko made contact with the wall behind Sudowoodo, the condemned building shook violently and started cracking everywhere from the heavy impact of the blow.

"_And note to self: keep away from Pokédexs_." Anto told himself.

Emerald whistled, before grinning excitedly at Anto. "You've got great Pokémon, Anto! But you still won't win!"

Anto returned a competitive glare and smile.

Emerald threw out his next Pokémon, a great Sceptile who locked sights with Ohko.

Ohko rolled his neck to crack the creaks back in place before taking another fighting position.

"Leaf Blade!" Emerald cried.

The mighty Hoenn starter, launched himself in amazing speeds toward Ohko, but the fighting type didn't flinch. Rather, he tightened his fist and tensed his body.

"_Counter!_"

Ohko reached out and punched the incoming Leaf Blade. The instant it made contact, all light form the attack vanished, encompassed all over Ohko, then exploded with a bright flash and musical clang.

Sceptile was sent flying back, but slid on the ground as he readied himself for the next attack.

As the light died down, Anto's eyes widened. "_Ohko! Return!_"

Ohko looked confused at Anto, but shrugged and trusted him as his boss recalled him back into his Great Ball.

Emerald clicked his tongue. "Tch! OK, you're definitely sharp to see that!"

As Ohko left via laser, several seeds fell harmlessly into the ground before sprouting. Somehow, Sceptile had used Leech Seed the split second after the attack made contact, making the fight go any longer would have knocked Ohko out faster.

But he knew that Grass type effect moves don't work on other grass type Pokémon.

"**Salutations.**" Lily bowed.

"Not making that same mistake I did with the Sawk," Emerald cried as he brought out his Pokédex.

"Lilligant, the Flowering Pokémon. The fragrance of the garland on its head has a relaxing effect. It withers if a trainer does not take good care of it."

"_It does what!?_" Anto mentally shrieked as he realized that the pretty flower on Lily's head could actually wither. He didn't know he was supposed to take care of that!

"**What do you mean, 'It does what'?!**" Lily shrieked back, "**And why are you staring worryingly at my head!?**"

"_Uuuuhhhhh, no reason?_"

Lily leered. "**You better tell me later!**" She warned before facing Sceptile.

Emerald blinked and wondered why Anto's Lilligant started screaming at him. In fact, he wondered how Anto was giving out commands to his Pokémon at all, he had been paying attention, he didn't see any significant physical cues, especially since his Pokémon were very focused on their opponents.

But he digressed, this was one great battle. He needed to bring his A game for this one.

"Sceptile, Iron tail!"

The giant grass type blasted off, slamming his empowered tail into Lily, making her fly a good distance back.

Emerald raised his brow. Why did he let her take that hit?

"_Now! Quiver Dance!_"

The Dex wielder's eyes shot up. That was why he let the attack connect! To widen the distance between Sceptile and Lilligant so he could set up easier! Clever little (Emerald was the midget here, mind you.) Smeargle!

"Bullet Seed quickly!"

Sceptile fired a large amount of empowered pellets at the empowered grass type, who countered the attack by launching a speedy Magical Leaf attack. But Lily was the better special attacker and her attacks lasted through Sceptile's

Sceptile's hand blades glowed and ripped apart the attack before it could harm him.

"Go charge in! She's better at Long Range than you!" The small boy shouted.

Sceptile dove in, powering up Leaf Blades and attempting to slash up the opposing grass type.

Yet Lilligant dance in rhythmic footwork, beautifully dodging the swipes with dance moves along with glowing brightly.

Emerald started to sweat as he saw Lilligant avoiding the attack by using Quiver Dance! The more she dodged the attacks, the stronger she was becoming!

There was one shot and turning this around, but Emerald was impressed that someone other than a dex user was actually able to push him this hard to use it!

"Sceptile back off!" Emerald cried out. He then concentrated as the fully evolved starter came back.

"_Lily, gather up Magical Leaf! Something big is coming!_" Anto warned.

A light started to envelope the grass type and the ground started trembling.

Emerald pointed at Lilligant. "**Frenzy Plant!**"

* * *

[Meanwhile, in several locations…]

Ruby flipped through the channels that al showed individual battles.

"So who are you looking for?" Lisia asked as she sat down with Ruby.

"Trying to find my friends, I heard they both entered… oh hey! There, see that midget? He's my friend, Emerald, and he conquered the Battle Frontier in Hoenn."

Lisia cooed as she pointed to the screen. "Ooo! Look at his opponent! A Shiny Lilligant! Oh those Pokémon are so loving, patient, and so gentle along with beautiful!" None of those described the current Lilligant on the screen except beautiful. "I should catch one while I'm still here in Unova!"

"While I do admit that is such a beautiful Pokémon, Emerald is a better—" Ruby blinked as he saw Emerald's Sceptile be pushed back and start to concentrate.

His eyes widened as he recognized what he was doing.

* * *

In the Small Court, a trainer and her Pokémon were tactically retreating from their opponents.

Sapphire and her Blaziken, Chaka dodged a Water Pulse attack.

"Now!" The blue girl cried and pointed to the poison and water dual type.

The Hoenn fire starter nimbly jinked left and right to avoid more water blasts before launching a powerful Thunder Punch on the Tentacruel and knocked it out.

"The winner! Sapphire!" Both Xtransciveres cried out and showed Sapphire's picture.

The two trainers shook hands in good sportsmanship before the girl in blue wondered how the others were doing.

She got her answer when Blaziken seemed distracted over the fighters in the residential district.

* * *

While in the big Stadium, Wes and Espeon were finishing their match.

"Psychic!"

The enemy Machamp was sent smashing into the wall.

"Winner: Wes!" The two wrist machines called out.

Espeon proudly walked over to Wes before they saw something eye catching in the distance.

"Wanna bet that's Anto?" Wes asked.

"**Do we know anyone else that can get into that type of situation?**"

* * *

"Winner: Sebastian Wong!"

"Well there's a sight you don't see every day…" The seventeen year old shielded his eyes as he looked towards the thing that was sticking out.

* * *

"Winner: Platinum Berlitz!"

"I wonder…"

* * *

Winner: Black!"

"Whoa! That's one powerful Move!

* * *

"Winner: Arran Valliquete!"

"Huh."

* * *

"Winner: Jamie Stanton!"

"… Wait a second…"

* * *

[Back in the fight.]

The earth beneath everyone trembled as a storm of living giant roots burst out of the ground and rocketed wildly towards Lilly.

The female grass type saw the attacks encompassing even the nearby surrounding buildings and readied her storm of leaves. However, she looked back at her exposed trainer and decided something else.

The massive attack of the Ultimate Grass Move barreled hard on them, encompassing the entire street with lush, wild roots covering the area and even shooting high up into the sky, which stood out in the residential area.

Emerald checked his Xtransciver. There was no indication that he won which meant…

A large burst of green light appeared and impacted/shoved several thick, giant vines away, showing a large dome of glowing leaves before they dispersed with Lily, a little out of breath, but shielding Anto.

"_Thanks._"

"**No problem. … Whoa, I didn't know he had this type of move.**" Lily took in the sight of all the trees surrounding the area.

"_Are you still powered up?_" Anto asked.

"**Twice**." Lily answered before Sceptile jumped on a high root with Emerald being carried.

Emerald got off and smiled. "Not many Pokémon can survive the ultimate type moves, but then again, you're not normal, are you?" Emerald pointed, "Now! Iron Tail!"

Sceptile jumped off, but not towards Lily. Sceptile, expertly jumped from vine to vine, almost making this place look like a pseudo jungle.

Then it he bounced off and tried to slam Lily with an Iron Tail. Still Lily was now faster thanks to the power boost of two Quiver Dances and dodge the attack easily.

However, Lily threaded over a protruding root, and tripped. Sceptile had no trouble bouncing back from his first attack and quickly going after Lily again.

This time, Sceptile turned his giant tree tail up and tried to bring it down hard on Lily, but Lily acted quickly and rolled out of the way. She flipped back up, only to miss step and almost trip again by another root.

Anto realized what had happened! Emerald's attack wasn't just strong; it completely changed the battle field in favor of Sceptile with more vines, roots, branches, and such! It was like fighting in a thick forest or jungle that Sceptiles and their pre evolutions are great at! Not to mention, despite Lily's boosted speed, her mobility and range has been cut down greatly due to the twisting and thick roots and thorns surrounding the area!

After all, what good is speed if you can't move freely!?

What a powerful attack! Even when it misses, Emerald still uses it to his advantage!

Anto gritted his teeth. "_Lily! Get back!_" his shiny Pokémon quickly complied and Anto returned her.

"Oh? You're going to get rid of your stat boosts?" Emerald smirked.

Anto started to sweat. He still recalled the Leech Seed thing Sceptile tried to do on Ohko. Sceptile was faster before he changed the field to his advantage, Ohko would no doubt get knocked out during a long battle.

For Lily, he just recalled her, and even with her boosted powers, her movement was hampered greatly by this forest like area.

Which only left his last Pokémon…

Anto did not notice that with the other matches already finishing, more and more camera drones were gathering around his and Emerald's battle.

[Aspertia City]

Meanwhile, in a small and humble home…

"Hey Mom," A tall teenage boywith familiar sky blue eyes, but long auburn hair that reached his shoulders and was tied into a pony tail, answered the phone as he watched TV. "Oh yeah, I'm watching the Music Festival tournament right now. They really are going all out since they're occupying a thirty minute air time each match in 64 different channels. … Huh? Channel 13? You want me to watch that one? Why? … OK, OK hold your Rapidashes Mom, I'm turning into it."

The boy's dad walked in. "Hey, Katsu my boy! What are you watching?"

"The Music Festival Tournament, Dad. You know, where mom got called to work to? She specifically called to ask me to watch this match about a boy named Anto." The boy answered.

The two men looked at the screen and were surprised to see an urban looking area swamped and jungle like. On the screen showed a picture of Anto mid sneeze, causing the two men to scoff and laugh at the hilarious face.

"Is that why your mom called?" His father asked after calming himself down.

"I… I dunno." Katsu took a look at the Pokémon used in this battle: A Sceptile, which was currently out, a Sudowoodo, and a Dusclops versus a Patrat, Sawk, and Lilligant.

He saw the smaller boy with a triumphant smile on his face while the younger looking boy seemed to be sweating and deep at thought. Katsu knew that an evolved grass type like Sceptile obviously had the advantage over such a battlefield, and looking over this Anto's Pokémon none of them looked like a good match up.

On the screen, Anto sighed before throwing out his Pokémon.

Katsu's eyes widened. His eyes focused on the wooden blade with something tied to it.

His father's did as well. "Whoa! Look at that, Katsu! That Patrat has a wooden blade like you!"

His father was surprised his son didn't react and looked at him. He seemed to be staring with deep thought at the most common Pokémon in Unova with a blade of all things. His son did know a lot of martial arts, and as the father looked at the screen again, the Patrat also carried himself with an air of a martial master.

The father smiled at his son and roughed up his hair.

So this was why his wife called.

[Nimbasa City.]

Wes and Sapphire were watching a screen.

"Whoa, didn't know the little guy could pull off such a move." Wes remarked while being impressed.

Sapphire beamed with pride. "He didn't win the Battle Frontier for nothing. But I have to admit, Anto is pretty good for actually making Emerald use his most powerful move."

"Or he's just unlucky," The Snagger smirked. "Though knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if it was both." He laughed lightly.

"Oh, hey."

The two turned to the new voice to see three people.

"Wes, was it? Did you win your match?"

"And you are Arab, right?" The boy from Orre pointed back.

"It's Arran. And I am going to make you pay for that jab." The swordsman glared.

Wes' response was to just smirk. "Get in line." He retorted.

"If he's your friend, I hate to see your enemies," Two boys behind Arran came to them. "I'm Sebastian Wong, and this Jamie Stanton. You obviously met Arran Valliquete here. Good to know he treats everyone poorly."

Before anyone could say anything more, they were all distracted with Emerald on screen calling an attack.

* * *

{Recommended Music to play over the course of this fight: **Valentin Wiest - "Tomahawk"**}

Takezo dodged the Leaf Blade by the skin of his fur and quickly hopped on the top of a large root. He empowered his blade with an Assurance as the second stage Pokémon followed after him. Sceptile pressed his assault, slashing wildly with Takezo barely parrying or dodging the larger, more powerful strikes by margin.

Anto knew this was bad, if only he had a chance to set up! But Sceptile was just too fast and not letting up!

Takezo had to use Detect to avoid being cut in half like the root behind him.

It was then Anto realized something.

"_Takezo! How does detect work!? Can you just sense where you're opponent's moves are!?_"

Takezo jumped away, but didn't dare take his eyes off Sceptile. "**Yes that is the point of that defensive move!**"

"_Then don't use it defensively! Use it offensively!_"

"**Excuse me?**" Takezo looked to his friend, before snapping back to face Sceptile and dodging an X-scissor attack.

"_Use can sense where the attack is going to go right? Instead of avoiding it, parry and strike him!_"

Takezo slid back again, before taking an offensive sword stance. "**At least this plan does not involve me being crushed by boulders once more!"**

"_That only happened around three times! Now hurry up; here he comes!_"

Sceptile did a powerful horizontal slash with his arms, Takezo's eyes quickly glowed blue, and he quickly slid under the attack! While sliding, the little samurai used his moving momentum to hit the back of Sceptile's left knee, causing the taller Pokémon to flinch.

"Huh!?" Emerald cried in shock.

Takezo moved quickly after he slid, empowering his blade with a Cut attack, and slashing the back of Sceptile in an upward motion.

But while the attack hurt, it didn't do too much. Sceptile regained his senses and smacked Takezo with a fast Iron Tail, sending the smaller and lighter Pokémon flying. Takezo regained his senses mid air, and landed feet first into a nearby root before bouncing off to another higher root, running up it, then launching himself toward Sceptile from above him.

Sceptile, saw this coming and launched a Bullet Seed attack at the speeding Pokémon. Takezo empowered his blade again and slashed in quick succession the seeds that would hit him while ignoring the rest.

Sceptile readied another Leaf Blade. Takezo used Detect for a brief second, before deactivating it and empowering his blade with an Umbra Shred.

Just like with Dusclops, Takezo spun his body to just angle himself to avoid the swipe before unleashing a far more powerful dark slash on to the Grass type.

This time, Sceptile flew back, not as much as Takezo did earlier, but it was far more noticeable this time.

Emerald noticed how the fight was going, but as he did, he smiled. "Keep up the attack Sceptile!"

Anto blinked in surprise. Why was Emerald pressing the attack? Takezo could just keep using… OH CRAP!

"_Takezo, stop using Detect!_"

The Samurai blinked before he could process that, but barely avoided an X-Scissor attack before back flipping away.

"**Why!?**" Takezo shrieked.

"_I forgot Detect has a limited usage that's even lower than most moves! Emerald was planning to power through until it won't work anymore! You used it four times in this fight! After the fifth time, it may not be as effective as the other times!_"

Takezo did his best to escape Sceptile's assault without the use of his Detect move, but he was obviously struggling without it.

"**Then what do I do!?**"

…

"_We get creative! Hypno eyes!_"

Takezo wondered what this was about, but did as he was told, avoiding a slash and revealing his dual glowing eyes onto Sceptile and causing the giant Pokémon to fall into the ground asleep.

"Your Patrat knew Hypnosis?!" Emerald cried out in surprise.

But Anto ignored him. "_Back off, and use as many Sword Dances you can!_"

Emerald's eyes widened. "Sceptile, wake up!"

Emerald's voice snapped his Pokémon wide awake and he kicked himself back up, glaring at the small normal type finishing up several Swords Dances.

Takezo used Assurance again, but this time, there was a dense darkness that extended the reach of Takezo's wooden blade. Takezo spun it in his palm above his head before shifting into battle stance. He slashed right where Sceptile was, forcing the evolved Pokémon to back off.

Emerald sighed in relief. Despite the Patrat's power boost, Sceptile was still faster.

"… _Takezo now!_"

It was then both Pokédex wielder and his starter were startled as they saw the small Samurai take the tied piece of blue cloth around his sword and wrap it around his neck.

Like a scarf…

Emerald recognized what that item was! It was one of the highest prizes in the Battle Frontier for BP points!

A Choice Scarf!

"Sceptile quick! Leaf Blade!" The blonde boy cried hurriedly.

The Pokémon blasted off with incredible speed, but to his surprise, the Patrat was even faster now, maybe even faster than him!

With seemingly longer range and stronger power behind him, Takezo parried the Leaf Blade by colliding it with his Assurance move, making both attacks repel each other. However, Takezo spun with the repelled momentum and did a horizontal slash to launch Sceptile into a root.

Sceptile looked shocked before sliding into the ground, face first.

Anto thought something was off. Takezo did as well and did not let his guard down.

Both of them blinked when Sceptile started glowing green.

Sceptile slowly got up, locked sights with Takezo reading his blade and glaring back at him. Scepilte coiled, before roaring in a burst of energy, summoning Leaf Blades that cackled with electric-like energy and became longer and more vivid in light.

"Yes! Overgrowth Ability!" Emerald cried.

The two Pokémon stared each other down. Both Emerald and Anto, sensing the air between two powered up Pokémon, took a step back.

Then the two launched themselves at each other.

The way the two Pokémon moved was absolutely majestic. They clashed blades over a dozen times in less than ten seconds! Each time the opposing swords clashed, a powerful but musical sound echoed through the area. The ground beneath them and whatever roots they would use as platform were slashed and torn from the swings of their energy blades. And their own trainers had a hard time keeping up with the movements of their Pokémon.

Takezo then lead the fight upward. As both he and Sceptile started climbing the highest standing mega root that stood tall like a pillar or an obelisk. Even ascending, the two fought fiercely. The cameras in the sky zoomed in as the two would jump on one branch to another, at times clashing with each other in a bright flashes.

They got so high up that Emerald and Anto had to watch the cameras on their XTransciever.

The two sword users were at the top two branches before the very tip of the root. They stared down each other with fierce determination, ready to fight with everything they—

"_We get creative!_"

Anto's words echoed into Takezo's mind and then he smiled. Doing things the normal way, facing Sceptile down in a final showdown… just seemed too cliché.

Sceptile's eyes widened as Takezo powered down his blade, closed his eyes, and removed his Choice Scarf before tying it back to his blade.

But there was no way he would misuse this opening. Sceptile burst and launched himself at Takezo.

Meanwhile, everyone watching wondered why the Patrat would do that!

All except Anto.

"_I trust you buddy…_"

Sceptile raised his blades, but then Takezo's eyes shot open—with glowing blue eyes with his last useable Detect move!

Takezo jumped to the highest point of the root, to avoid the blow, before bouncing off it just as quickly and smacking his wooden blade right into Sceptile's head and sent him falling down like a meteor!

Sceptile crashed down on the ground hard, and a huge dust cloud covered the area which made both Anto and Emerald cover their face and cough a little.

Takezo landed much more smoothly at a higher root, gasping for breath.

As the dust cloud settled, they saw Sceptile's body sprawled on the floor.

But he twitched.

To Anto and Takezo' shock, and to Emerald's Joy, Sceptile weakly stood back up and looked towards Takezo fiercely.

Takezo panted, but held his blade out and pointed it to the fierce opponent.

Sceptile smiled at that…

Before falling back down unconscious.

"The winner: Anto!" Both XTranscivers cried.

"_YES! WAY TO GO TAKEZO!_" Anto whooped in mental excitement.

"**I… I think I will sit out the next fight.**" Takezo panted, obviously exhausted as he sat down on the root he was standing on.

"Aaww man!" Anto looked to Emerald recalling his Sceptile before coming up to him with a huge grin. "That was one of the best battles I've ever had! Even though I lost the first round, I'm not disappointed at all! You're a great trainer Anto!" Emerald brought out his hand. Anto smiled and shook hands with his opponent.

[Aspertia City]

"Wow! That was some fight huh, Katsu!?" His father excitedly cheered. He was on the edge of his eat ever since the battle between the last two Pokémon started.

Katsu still kept his eyes on the screen in wonder, still starting at the winner and the Normal type slouching on his shoulder. He spoke out, not moving his head form the two on screen declared as winners. "Dad… I want to start my own Pokémon journey as soon as possible!"

"Don't worry son, I'm sure you're journey will be great!"

* * *

**{Author Notes.}**

**Woohoo! Done! I had a lot of fun with this chapter for a fighting sequence.**

**For those wondering, the OC named Katsu Akio is owned by my good friend, **MangoLimePie. **And stars in his own story, **Icy Wrath**! **

**I highly recommend reading his works since its fun! And he helps me out! **

**Thanks a lot dude!**

**Also, I'd like to point out that writing the rules of moves are kind of hard here.**

**I tried my best to write beside the four move only rule, having Anto's Pokémon strictly know four moves, but according to all the manga and Anime, there are hints to all their Pokémon knowing more than four moves even though per match, they only limit to four. So writing around such loose rules is hard. But for Anto's Pokemon at least, i ill try to abide by the four moves rule while everyone else can be allowed more than four moves. (Five to six moves at best, which now that i think about it, i might let my pokemon have a limit on five to six rather than four. Bah.)  
**

**So just a small retcon from chapter ten, instead of four, I'm bumping up the cap limit from four to six. Hopefully none of you mind, if not, i can re write somethings otherwise.**

**Why I'm focusing on such a detail is because there's a lot of cool potential I see with the rules. I've seen some crazy pokemon moves online, and i want to see how well i can incorporate that.**

**Now for the next chapter, another slow chapter (sorta) after this high octane action!**

**(Also, PokéDex entries + Anto's Pokémon = Funny business.)**

**Thanks for reading! **

**EDIT: Thank you, **May845, **for pointing out Emerald's Sudowoodo was a girl. I think I overlooked that.**


	20. Ep 20: Hidden Respect

Episode 20: Fashion speaks louder than words.

* * *

"**WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!**"

Anto covered his ears. Despite being in this weird dreamscape again, he was surprised his brain could feel pain, especially from Hoopa's screaming.

"Well, I nearly died again over the course of the—"

"**I've been waiting for 191 seconds this time! And this realm ran out of pineapples! Are you expecting me to go mad!?**"

"… Week... you actually don't care do you?"

"**You better be sorry! Now off we go to exploring this mindscape!**" Hoopa cried out, pointing ahead towards the heart of the Island and seemingly ending the conversation he thought was happening.

Anto walked slowly after the strange Pokémon. "Why can't I be a normal guy and dream of normal things? Like a cute girl? Video games? A four point O GPA with a full paid scholarship to any college I want?"

As they continued to walk, Anto noticed some kind of magic, stone archway the glowed with blue energy and had some kind of portal.

Hoopa smiled, but then he quickly frowned as a strange purple blob in the shape of a Sawsbuck appeared.

"**Back, Back!**" Hoppa cried as he pushed Anto behind a tree.

"What's that all about?" The human asked.

Hoopa poked his head out. "**See that thing? It's a guardian to the first seal.**"

"You mean the Sawsbuck thing?"

Hoopa looked back at Snto for the first time as if acknowledging he actually existed. "**What? Did you say Sawsbuck?**"

"Uhh… yes?"

Hoopa looked back with a hand rubbing his chin observantly. "**It doesn't look like one to me.**" He mused before he smiled at Anto with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"**I need a distraction.**"

Anto regretted asking as Hoopa summoned a portal.

[A little later…]

"How is it that even in my dreams I can't catch a break?" Anto complained as he found himself wearing a degrading, embarrassing, giant, human sized blue berry bagel costume.

"**Hey! Why aren't you dancing?!**" Hoopa whispered harshly from behind the tree.

"I refuse to do that!" Anto yelled back.

"**I need some way to distract that thing, and look at you! It'll be too busy laughing to notice us sneak by!**"

"Under what logic will that plan actually work!?" Anto screamed.

"**Look, I can't go out there because one of the other guardians tried to kick me out of here, so shut up and do what you humans do, and ruin other people's lives! And yes that includes your own!**"

"Oh my god," Anto darkly realized. "You're a Pokémon version of Wes."

It was then he sensed something come up closer to him.

Anto turned back to see a strange purple blob shaped like a Sawsbuck step towards him. He gulped as it slowly made its way towards him.

"_Carpe Diem._"

"… What?" Anto asked.

"_That is why there is magic in all words._"

That voice sounded so familiar to him. Just what was this thing?

"Anto!"

Anto's eyes snapped opened to see the dark roof top of White's suite. He quickly checked himself and was glad to be out of that Giant Blue Berry Bagel costume.

He titled his head, to see White fully dressed with a nervous smile on her face.

"Hey Anto…" She nervously chuckled and whispered. "Umm… The Director's have a new idea and they kind of need you…"

Anto silently groaned. He couldn't believe he had to deal with those two again in what doesn't even look to be dawn. Could this get any worse?!

"In a giant blue berry bagel costume." White finished.

Anto had no words, and not just because he was mute.

* * *

"Bwahahahaha!" The sounds of unrestrained laughter echoed through the set.

"A-Aster!" Summer struggled to keep down her smile and quivering lips. "D-Don't la-laugh!"

Anto was not amused. The even sadder part was that he was getting used to bad things happening to him, and he really didn't want that.

The boy turned his deadpan gaze to Tracey, and really wanted to cry in joy.

"I've… seen worse." Tracey slowly explained. Anto was so glad that he was normal, yet used to strangeness.

Tracey would recall events of Ash Ketchum Crossdressing.

Willingly.

It was strange how odd people really were in the world.

"**So is he edible?**" Aster's Bagon asked Flow ad both he, she, and Sen were all standing around their trainers.

"**He does look mouth watering…**" Flow added before glancing to the boy. "**Anto are you edible?**"

"_Yes, but that's called cannibalism,_" Anto answered. "_And I really don't want to die._"

The two Pokémon and Sen stared at him.

Sentinel raised his boney claw like a child raising their hand in class. "… **So if you don't die, we can eat you?**"

"_No._" Anto stomped down on that idea hard. He forgot Sen wasn't properly trained at etiquettes… at all. "_I seriously don't want you to eat anything that isn't dead._"

Even with no eyes, Anto imagined his ghost type blinking. "**Does that mean I can eat myself since I'm not dead or alive?**"

Was he alive or not alive? That is the question. "_I really don't think you should try that. And I am dropping this conversation._" The more he started thinking about this, the more he would get trapped in a logical black hole.

"Hey," Anto looked to Aster who had a confused look on her face. "Did you just talk to them?"

Anto nodded.

"Oh right!" Summer placed her hand near her hand. "Aster, I forgot to say, but some of our psychic Pokémon found a way to translate Pokémon speech to us and we can understand what they all can say."

"So you guys can talk to Pokémon too?"

"Well, more like they can communicate with us, but yes." Summer responded.

The sound of a pair of high heels caught the group's attention, and they turned to see the CEO of BW agency herself.

"Ahh? Are you Anto? One of my Daughter's helpers?" She asked Anto.

He nodded.

Hilda smiled in realization. "Oh! Now I remember you! Participant #13! You're match was the most viewed telecast that day!"

"It was?" Tracey asked. Anto thought it was exciting to know that people might recognize him, maybe someone he used to know saw him by now!

She chuckled. "A lot of people saw that picture that was used as your ID…"

Aaaannnnnddd… now Anto's smiled died down faster than a guy being gunned down to death. His face was so funnily contorted, he doubted anyone would stop laughing long enough to try and recognize him.

"May I ask for your help with something?"

Anto nodded anything to get him out of this ridiculous bagel suit.

* * *

Anto, and the others also stopped by to pick up Black, who the boy was eternally grateful when White's mom came to save him from the eternal question of 'Which same colored clothes make me look fat?' from Lisia and Ruby.

However, they all wondered why Hilda was picking up her daughter's helpers.

They got their answer when they entered into the Big Stadium where the main court was looking like it was set up for a stage. There looked to be a good amount of beautiful women wearing some really stylish looking clothes and as the kept moving on, they saw one rather unique individual.

"Ahh, Fatina!" Hilda called out to the beautiful ghost gym leader of the Sinnoh region.

"Madame Hilda, le magnifique! Thank goodness you have arrived. Your daughter is trying her best but those two…" She looked a little disappointed beyond the curtains.

"I didn't even know those two were like that before I came here," Hilda sighed, making the rest of the group wonder what their talking about. "But I do have a plan."

Black spoke up. "Hey, wait! What's going on? Is White in trouble? Why do you need Anto and I?"

Fatina gave a curious look over to the mute and Black. "You called for these two specifically?"

"Work in progress," Hilda answered. "I promise to explain more, but it'll make more sense when you see it for yourself."

The small group looked at each other before following Hilda behind the stage.

There, they felt the temperature drop immediately. All around the very edges were female models, all stepping far away from the center of the area (Storm) where there were two powerful opposing forces, glaring down each other.

"You really should step down, _Country Bumpkin_."

Her voice was as powerful as the element she commanded, making others around her shiver from the shocks.

"Yuh, boss me? Ah recall yuh being more blind than yur than your own neon lights, _City Airhead._"

The opposing force was graceful and elegant, yet powerful and not to be underestimated. Despite the kindness, they all could detect a powerful beast just waiting to be unleashed.

"Please! Gym Leader Elesa, Gym Leader Valerie! Calm down!" White tiredly begged.

**{Author Notes: I based Valerie's speech of the recent Pokémon XY Anime where she seems to have a rather unique accent. I actually am interested to see what they do for English.}**

"Oh my gosh," Summer said as she looked at the two. "I totally forgot! Elesa is a top model and fashion designer in Unova while Valerie is also an accomplished model and designer as well! I'm a huge fan of both of their works! … Wait, why are they like this?" She said as she realized the tension between the two beautiful women glaring angrily at each other.

Hilda sighed. "Fatina, give me a second. I need to help my daughter." She walked towards the battlefield.

Fatina placed her hand on her face. "Oi vey. In case you did not know, since I myself learned of this recently, it appears madams Valerie and Elesa came from the same designer and model school. They were even roommates."

The group's eyes widened.

"They know each other!?" Summer asked out.

Aster looked at them. "But why are they so… you know?"

"I heard they were actually rivals during their model days," Fatina shrugged. "It appears no one knew such news until now."

"Funny coming from the girl who tripped up several times walking a straight line!" Elesa passive aggressively stated.

"Not as hilarious as a certain student falling through that same stage! It simply couldn't handle her ego!" Valerie retorted back.

"Enough!" Hilda exclaimed, driving a wedge between the two. "You are both professionals! Now, what exactly is going to be the main theme for tomorrow's fashion show!?"

The two started talking at the same time.

"Stop!" Hilda exclaimed with dead seriousness. "Alright, you two obviously cannot agree on a theme. And since you two seem to have… issues…" She inhaled. "We're going to decide this by battle."

She snapped her fingers again, stopping the two from reaching their Poké Ball.

"Not like that. You're both models and designers aren't you? Fatina, Wallace, and I will be judging your clothing themes later tonight, but your challenge, instead of your usual female models…" Hilda looked over to Anto's group.

Anto glanced worryingly to Black, who also seemed to be understanding why they were called out.

Hilda crossed her arms with a strange smile on her face. "You are going to be doing two young, pre teen trainers and their Pokémon."

Anto and Black quickly stepped back and turned around, but were met with a dark smiling Aster and Fatina.

As if by some magic, two young boys came running (tripping) on both sides of Hilda.

She placed her hands on both boy's shoulders as they regained their balance and stood up straight. "And looky here, two wonderful models the BW Agency just so happen to have~."

"_White, tell her I didn't volunteer for this!_" Anto mentally shouted.

"Prez, get me out of here!" Black begged his friend and technically boss at the same time Anto asked her for help.

The girl smiled, put her hands together apologetically and tilted her head as she laughed nervously.

It was such a good thing she was a pretty girl.

"Young males?" Valerie asked as she looked between the two boys.

Sentinel, figuring he has to follow his trainer anywhere, walked beside Anto.

Elesa folded her arms. "I think it would fit you quite well, considering your small style of that thing you call fashion."

Anto and Black noticed the vein on Valerie's beautiful face despite her smile. "Just make sure yuh don't crush them with yur overcompensating work."

Elesa smiled back then grabbed Black—much to the young boy's dismay—and walked away, showing she was rather strong to drag away an unwilling young preteen.

Anto gulped as he saw Valerie look at him.

"Hmpf!" Valerie then grabbed Anto by the wrist, and he quickly noted she had a really, really strong grip for model like hands.

Why were models so surprisingly strong?!

* * *

Anto, with a throbbing wrist, was finally let go as Valerie adamantly stormed into her momentary workshop. It looked more like a studio with a lot of heavy eastern influences like sliding doors, small tea tables, but saw a lot of model dummies with scissors and other designer related objects with mirrors and such in a different corner of the room.

Sentinel phased through the door after Valarie disappeared. "**Whoo. Finally caught up. Man! I gotta ask your mate how she can put off such amazing pressure! I could barely get within arms distance with her brooding like that!**"

"_Are you kidding me!? I felt like I was going to die—why did you just call her my mate?_" Anto realized as he looked to his rare dragon ghost type.

"**Huh? Isn't that what Takezo calls whatever girl that gets close to another male or something?**"

Anto faceplamed. "_That's it. I'm not suffering alone in this._" With that he summoned the other three of his Pokémon out.

Takezo glanced around. "**This place feels familiar…**"

"_Takezo, what the heck are you teaching Sentinel!?_" Anto pointed to the boney creature beside him.

"**Excuse me? Fighting philosophies, breathing techniques which I soon learned were useless on him, and combat exercises.**"

"_He commented about mating! Thus I automatically blame you!_"

"**Actually I heard it from Lily.**" Sen pointed to the girl.

Takezo folded his arms strictly. "**I am hurt you would make such hurtful accusations! Are we not friends!?**"

Lily pointed a hand up. "**But I heard that from you.**"

"**So tell us more about our current situation.**" Takezo suddenly switched topics.

They heard a crash in the other room, followed by a blood curdling screech. "That, barbaric, brutish, city-loving, vapid, indecisive hair coloring, condescending, egotistic, pale skinned, close minded, thick skulled, chemical smelling, crazy, super abundance in foulness, immoral, degenerate, conceited, ambiguous, bombastic, cerebral, tart-like, floozy, conceited, vacillating, vacuous, self absorbed, vain shrew!"

OK, Valerie… had some good lungs on her. She'd be an excellent Exploud.

And she' very well versed in vocabulary…

"**Whoa bro! That dude is totally pumped up!**" They heard another grunt and crash. "**Yo, I gots to join in!**"

Anto stopped his fighting type quickly. "_Ohko, stop! Stop trying to hit something that isn't a living thing!_"

Ohko glanced over. "**Does that include Sen?**" He asked honestly.

"_Can we save that topic for later tonight?_"

Anto may not look like it, but he had an amazing amount of patience.

But before anyone could respond to that, one of the sliding doors opened and Valerie, seemingly cleaning herself a little and a being just slightly flushed, walked back into the main room.

"Apologies that yah had to see that." Valerie explained. "Ah admit it's not one of mah finest moments. Ah must apologize once more, in all of that, ah didn't get yur name."

Anto debated whether to talk to someone mentally or just do hand signs, but decided on the later due to the fact that just outright mentally speaking to someone would be… uncomfortable. So he took out a small note pad and wrote out, "My name is Anto. I'm a volunteer helping out the Vice President, but I'm actually mute."

Valerie blinked with her surprisingly gorgeous eyes. "Yuh cannot speak?" She then looked over to who she assumed were the boy's Pokémon, all of them with their own uniqueness to them.

"**Wow,**" Lily cooed. "**She's a really beautiful woman.**"

Valerie smiled. "**Ah thank yuh for the compliment. Yuh as well are quite beautiful.**"

Everyone blinked. (Except Sen but)

"**Huh? What's wrong guys?**" Sentinel asked innocently. "**Can't she just talk to us?**"

Sentinel asked that because, ever since he has been free, he's had little trouble understanding other humans due to the others. Despite the ability to talk to Pokémon being rare, Sentinel has been exposed to a rather large amount of people capable of Pokémon communication.

"**But there are no psychic translators nearby…**" Takezo mentioned.

Valerie smiled. "Anto, was it? Despite being mute, ah sense that yuh have a way to communicate with this Pokémon, seeing the kindness in their eyes. Not to mention, that psychic comment has caught muh attention."

Anto blinked, he had never seen the way she uses to talk to Pokémon. It was like instead of translating automatically like most Aura or Psychic users he thought, it looked more like Valerie could actually _speak_ fluent Pokémon language, since his powers seemed to translate her voice.

"_Umm. Yeah. I seem to have some basic psychic abilities apparently. I only communicate like this to my friends._"

Valerie nodded. "How interesting! Yuh speak with yur mind and not yur voice. Forgive the late introduction, but mah name is Valerie of Kalos, the Gym Leader of Laverre City."

Anto liked where this conversation was going. "_A pleasure to meet you. Oh! Let me introduce my friends! The Patrat with a blade is Takezo, _(Takezo: **Greetings.**)_ The Lilligant is Lily _(Lily:**Pleasure to meet you!**)_ The Sawk is Ohko _(Ohko: **Why ya have no hands?**) _And this last one is Sentinel, a pretty rare Pokémon from the Torren region._"

Sentinel waved his claw. "**Teach me how to release the amount of blood lust you have!**"

The fairy type gym leader giggled. "**Yuh all have such vivid personalities.**"

Anto thought that maybe this wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Valerierevealed her hands under her sleeves to show scissors and a measure tape for clothes on two different hands.

She titled her head and smiled sweetly. "Now take off yur clothes."

…

…

…

"_Excuse me?_" Anto asked with the same frozen smile on his face from a while ago before those five words came out of nowhere.

Valerie made the scissors snip. "Ah still have to usurp a certain gypsy in a contest, and I can't make clothes for yuh without yur measurements. **So strip**."

Anto broke into cold sweat.

* * *

[Meanwhile]

Black gulped as Elesa asked him to strip.

He may have owed White money, but he was not selling his body!

Maybe he could make a break for it?

Suddenly, Black heard a very loud series of sounds coming from outside Elesa's house. He glanced out the window, to coincidentally see Anto running for their dear life from blasts of pink energy.

He gulped and turned his head towards Anto's attacker and saw a very scary, but beautiful woman after him with several blood-lust heavy Pokémon.

It was then Black had second thoughts about escape if Elesa would do even half the things Valerie was doing.

[Later]

Her laugh was quite melodious, it's too bad he was too tired (And slightly injured) to really feel its soothing sound.

"Yuh thought aah meant all of yur clothes? Apologies, ah just needed yur shirt off."

"_Well sorry Valerie, it just…_" Anto looked to his Patrat where the gym leader's Sylveon seemingly was taking his measurements. "_Let's just say someone else asked me to strip before and it wasn't pleasant at all._" He made a deadpan look.

Valerie nodded as she continued her work. "Now tell me more about yur Pokémon and yuh self."

"_Why?_" He tilted his head.

"Ah need to match a style that brings out a person and his Pokémon. Clothes are nothing if people don't like it. I learned that from Ely." Valerie's eyes widened after she said that name.

Anto didn't know why, but he almost saw her reaction as the look of someone that just made a mistake. "_Ely? Who is Ely?_"

Anto's mind raced. She just said she learned that from someone. She learned a fashion tip from someone named Ely. Anto didn't know Valerie personally, nor did he know any of her friends, but her reaction after saying that name almost seemed like she regretted saying that. Why would she regret that? Why wouldn't she want Anto to know about this Ely?

Ely… Elesa? But she obviously hates her, yet… it wouldn't be too farfetched for her to learn something from her rival right?

"_It's Elesa isn't it?_" Anto asked.

Valerie looked into Anto's eyes in shocked before sighing. "Yuh are very perceptive… yes it's her."

"_If you don't mind me asking, why are you two like that?_"

She sighed dejectedly. "It's complicated."

"_If it makes you feel better, I promise not to tell anyone._"

Valerie smiled weakly. "Yuh are mute."

Anto gave a goofy grin. "_See I'm great at that!_"

The gym leader giggled at that. "Arceus, yuh are much like her, so expressive and honest. … Alright ah will tell yuh, it was a long time ago…"

* * *

[Many years ago…]

The Rosemary Visual Arts University in Lumoise City was where it all began.

A young eighteen year old Valerie with her Sylveon and Mawile excitedly but nervously made their way to her dorms. She had just left her home of Laverre Town and she was quite awe struck at the mega metropolis compared to her old fashioned home.

She easily had butter flies in her stomach as she was going to start her modeling career.

"This is it, ready mah friends?" A freshmen Valerie asked her Pokémon as she stood in front of the door of her new dorm. She could tell her roommate was already there.

With a nodded of affirmation, the small time country girl opened the doors…

"FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA FRIEZA~!"

And opened up a blast of loud music.

Valerie quickly shut the door behind her and gasped for air. Both she and her Pokémon were disheveled by the blast of air and ringing in their heads.

"Ah… Ah was not expecting that." Valerie half commented half gasped. Suddenly the door behind her opened again, and she lost her balance and fell through back into the room.

The raven haired girl groaned but opened her eyes to something—someone looking down on her with deep sky blue eyes into her gray colored eyes.

Her eyes trialed over and saw a Blitzle and Emolga nearby this woman.

"So you are my roomie huh?" The pale skinned adolescence asked before helping Valerie up.

"Y-yes! Mah name is Valerie from Laverre Town, pleasure to meet yuh!" She said as she shook hands with her new roommate.

"Out from the boonies huh? Well, I'm Elesa from Nimbasa City. Nice to meet you too."

"Nimbasa City? Is that not from Unova?"

"Yeah. I have to admit though, Lumiose City is even bigger than I thought it would be, but I feel right at home here. So you need help with your stuff?"

"Nah I'm fine thank yuh!" She happily said as she took out her pink but plain pillow.

[Time Passes...]

Under the winter weather, the two beautiful women made their way back to their dorms.

"How odd that we have the same classes, Val." The woman from Unova commented. "I didn't know you were planning to be both a model and designer, why did you want to be one?"

"Ah just love how pretty things are! … And… ah just want to show others how ah see things. Through mah clothes, actions, and my works, I want to show how even beauty can have power."

Elesa chuckled. "That's pretty bold."

"What about yuh, Ely?" The Girl from Kalos asked.

"I don't really have a particular reason. But if I were to say… I just want to bring the best out of myself," She scoffed. "Sounds a bit selfish isn't it?"

"Not truly." Valerie admitted before sneezing.

The trainer with electric Pokémon laughed. "How is it that you weren't prepared for the cold weather?"

"Back in mah home, the weather was always so warm." Valerie explained.

Elesa stopped and removed her yellow scarf. Valerie watched her in surprise, especially when she wrapped the still warm and woolen cloth on her neck.

"Ah, Ah cannot accept this." Valerie wanted to give it back, but was stopped.

"Then just say you found it on your neck and that no one ever claimed it was theirs." Elesa nonchalantly walked ahead of her. "Aww geez. I can't believe that I didn't wear one of the dozens of scarves I keep in our dorm. What a shame I have to wait till we get there. Hurry up, Val."

She walked ahead, but Valerie rubbed the warm wool fabric that covered her neck. She was quite glad to have such a friend.

[Time Passes…]

Valerie had her eyes wide open as she struggled with a lack of sleep. Unfortunately for her, it was two A.M. in the morning and she was still very much awake with the amount of lights and music still playing.

Apparently, Elesa was a night owl. That was an understatement. She lived near the district where the Carnivals and other tourist hotspots were nearby and they always had neon lights up at the night. Because of this, Elesa was pretty much up during the late at nights while took naps during the afternoon. Her sleeping schedule was vastly different with Valerie and to be honest, it was kind of annoying.

"Ely," The very very tired Valerie asked. "Could yuh please keep it down? … Ely?" She groggily rubbed her eyes and noticed that despite playing music, she had headphones on as she drew.

Valerie had half a mind to go up to her, but another part, her brain, throbbed in pain if she would get even closer to Elesa.

It was then that Valerie started sleeping in the lobby.

[Time Passes…]

"Val! You do not do this!"

"Ely, ah couldn't even find mah stuff on yur pile. A lady must keep herself tidy!" The raven haired girl exclaimed. She didn't know why Elesa was so angry for cleaning and organizing her things up, she was surprised she could even function like a slob.

"You don't touch my stuff!" Elesa screeched.

[Time Passes…]

From mild annoyances, to rising frustrations.

The two's opposing characters grew worse and worse over time.

The final straw that broke the camel's back was when they insulted each other's works.

"What!? Yuh take that back!" Valerie screeched, her Mawile and Sylveon looking especially ticked.

Elesa's Emolga and Zebstrika hissed. "If you take back that comment about my work!"

One called the other's work over compensating, while the other was called to be too dull and boring.

That was how their fighting began: a fight… turned Pokémon battle… in their small room.

The school was surprisingly forgiving afterward but the rift between the two started.

[Time Passes…]

It was unlady like of her, but she gritted her teeth and brooded. Her own teachers were telling her that some of her designs were quite bland. But how exactly could she get a creative edge?

She then noticed on the corner of her eye, her roommate-turned-rival. She was talking to someone she hadn't seen on campus and taking down notes.

"… more about your work life?" She asked something to that formal looking woman.

The woman responded. "I would like something that makes my co workers take me seriously, but doesn't make me look like some fashionista."

She nodded her head. "I think that's wonderful how your making a statement with your clothes."

"And I think you've got an eye for this. Asking me what kind of clothes I want? After all, if people want clothes, business people have to cater to what they want." The woman laughed.

Valerie blinked. She would take a page from her rival: she would ask others what they would want in clothes and work around there. She would not be out done by that brute.

[Time Passes…]

She didn't know what to feel after getting her diploma and signing contracts with several clothing lines in Kalos.

She quietly brought her stuff out of the dorms, where the other half was already emptied out some time since.

As she left, the promising up and coming model/designer saw all the other girls, laughing and hugging, some few males also getting their goodbyes.

Valerie packed the last of her things on the cart before noticing one of her boxes wasn't completely secured. Before she could close it, something stuck out.

Pulling it out, as if some kind of old treasure, Valarie looked at the four year old scarf she never returned.

It was then she realized…

She never said 'thank you' to her friend.

* * *

[Present time.]

Valerie sighed as she finished explaining or downsizing the gist of her relationship with Elesa.

"The thing was, she was right about mah work. Ah didn't have anything that really set mah self apart from other designers. Mah work was clean and organized, but too plain," The beautiful gymleader reminisced. "After our first Pokémon battle, we started doing it a lot more almost whenever we would meet each other, funny enough, ah think we both became better trainers because we kept trying to one up the other." She laughed somberly. It was funny to think one of the reasons that the two became great battlers was because of their rival.

"Ah… Ah am thankful for Ely," She stated solemnly. "If it wasn't for her, ah wouldn't have pushed mah self to make more bold designs and get out of my comfort zone, and she wouldn't have taught me that there are some things in life you can't learn from a text book. Half of mah works wouldn't be as popular as today."

Anto was slightly confused hearing that story though. "_If you have so much respect for her, why are you arguing with her?_"

The fairy type gym leader frowned. "Ah… Ah can't really say it. Out of shame, perhaps? It was so long ago, and ah was so stubborn… A piece of me now wanted to make things up when ah was offered to come here," She flushed red in embarrassment. "Yet, ah froze up and let my petty rivalry rise up again. ah think now she still despises me though. Are ah not pitiful? Ah am a successful designer, model, and gym leader, yet ah can't 'suck it up' and apologize for being so rude to her before."

"_I really don't think you're pitiful, Valerie._"

"Kinda of yuh to say, but I just can't bring mah self to say what ah need to…" She somberly sighed.

It was then a knocking on the door appeared to Valerie's studio door.

The designer stood up. "Ah moment please."

Anto turned to his Pokémon. "_Guys, we are helping Valerie!_"

"**How are you going to do that?**" Lily asked him, beside her, Valerie's Mawile also looked at the boy.

"_I actually have an idea, but I need to get to Elesa's place. Thing is, Valerie can't know about this, or at least this part. I need something or someone to distract her._"

Valerie walked back to them, and they all acted natural as if nothing happened. "Anto, yuh don't mind, but Mrs. Akio here is collecting some rough sketches for the movie Bichael May is producing."

Anto's eyes perked up at that familiar name, and true enough, the nice lady he met was waving casually at him with a smile on her face.

"It's nice to meet you again!" Jennifer jubilantly greeted.

"Can yuh wait here please? Ah will go get the sketches." Valerie explained to her.

Jennifer nodded. "Alright."

Anto smiled, and as soon as Valerie left, Anto grabbed his note book and quickly wrote something to Mrs. Akio, "Mrs. Akio! I need your help with a friend! Can you distract Valerie for 30 mins!? It's really really important!"

The beautiful woman blinked, before finishing reading and smiling sweetly again. "I don't know what you're doing, but the look in your eyes is really determined. I'll buy you as much time as you need."

Anto bowed in respect before grabbing his jacket (and shirt) and getting a hold on Sen. "_Sentinel! We don't have much time! I need you to take us out of here through Phantom Force!"_

"**You want me to take you to through the attack's dimension? But last time you were unconscious when I did that.**"

"_The walls will only slow me down. Besides, how bad could it be?_"

Sen shrugged before grabbing his friend.

"_Alright guys, help Mrs. Akio stall!_" Anto said before Sen phased both him and himself out of there.

* * *

Sen and Anto appeared out in front of Elesa's house/mansion in a small cloud of ghost energy.

Anto shivered since he found out there was like absolutely no warmth in the phasing part of Phantom Force. "_OK! … Not my one best plans. Now that I think off it, I could have asked Lily to carry me via air._"

"**Why didn't we just go in?**" His ghost type asked.

Anto motioned the Delta Pokémon towards a window where the two stealthily looked through. "_ I'll explain later, but I remember briefly seeing black here when Valerie was chasing me here a while back. … Ah ha! There's Black!_"

True enough, Black was in a similar situation of being dressed up and having his measurements taken.

"_Black! Oi, Black!_" Anto mentally connected with the boy.

"Huh?" The trainer looked around in surprise.

"Is something wrong?" Elesa asked.

Anto motioned Sen to phase his hand over and open the window slightly so he could hear their voices. "_Black, it's me Anto! I need your help, don't let Elesa know I'm here!_"

"N-Nothing!" Black stammered. "Just thought I heard something."

"_I found out why the two are fighting one another! Excuse yourself and go to the bathroom or something!_"

"A-Actually! You don't mind if I use the rest room for a bit right? I thought this would be shorter for some reason."

Elesa sighed. "Fair enough. Be back soon though."

Black nodded gratefully before leaving with his shirt and jacket.

Anto looked to his ghost type. "_It's time to trespass in a hot model's home! Oh man, I sound like a stalker…_" He realized.

"**What's a stalker?**"

"_Just use Phantom Force to get us into the Bathroom with Black._" The two held tightly and vanished into the shadows.

Meanwhile, at the very expensive and artistic looking bathroom. "Man so this is how the one percent live huh? Uhh… Anto? Anto, you here?" He whispered softly as he looked around.

Then Anto appeared out of thin air and caused Black to yelp.

Elesa heard that and decided to go far away from the rest room as possible if Black was going to make those sounds while he did his business.

"Anto!? How did you get here!?" Black looked away from the shivering boy silently complaining about stupid physics and saw the odd Pokémon beside him. "Whoa! I've never seen that Pokémon before!" he took out his Pokédex.

Anto groaned as he saw the device. "_Oh not again…_"

"Charmeleon, The Flame Pokémon. It is very hot-headed by nature, so it constantly seeks opponents. It calms down when it wins."

"_Oh… that's not so bad this time. But that sounds more like Ohko._" Anto thought to himself

"Wait that can't be right. The picture looks completely different…" Black noted as he inspected his device.

But of course, it still causes problems. "_Black, focus! I need your help with Valerie and Elesa._"

Black looked at him weirdly. "Wait, do you also know about their college days?"

Anto's widened and he nodded his head. "_Elesa told you?_"

"I asked her why she had such a problem with that foreign gym leader. She told me she didn't." Black then told Elesa's side of the story where after their separate ways, Elesa learned how to make cleaner works and to tone down some of her subtler ideas. It was thanks to Valerie that Elesa learned self discipline to prevent her works from being too overdone. "It's just she was nervous about her past to try and ask forgiveness."

"_My gosh! That's the same with Valerie!_" Anto smiled.

Black laughed at that. "For two well accomplished women, they are acting like kids about this!"

"_Black, I came here because I need your help in bringing these two to make up!_"

"Hearing it from your side, yeah but we're going to need some way to get these two together. … The tricky thing will be how to get them not to snap at each other… Ugh! I can't think of anything! I left Musha back in the fitting room!" Black cried out.

Anto's amber eyes lighted up. "_Actually… I think I might have something._"

The young mute told regaled his plan in his head.

[Later and back at Valerie's studio…]

"Excuse me?" Valerie asked in a slightly bamboozeled manner.

"_You want to say you're sorry to Elesa don't you? And you said it yourself you freeze up and do that, so this way you can say clearly what you want to say! And she'll be too shocked to say anything mean!_"

Anto and Valerie's Pokémon all voiced their consent at this idea.

"Ah… Ah suppose. No, ah need to do this. Yuh are right, Anto. I need to make the first step."

"_Glad to hear it! But you might need some inspiration. Takezo here knows Thunderbolt if that will help you get ideas. And I think Mrs. Akio can get you some magazines._"

Valarie raised her brow. "Yuh seem quite excited…"

"_Anything to help a friend, it's one of the few things I don't suck at._" Anto paused a bit. Where did that last part come from?

* * *

Later that night in the Small Court, a private room was reserved for four people: Hilda, Fatina, Wallace, and new guest judge, Alder, who was visiting Nimbasa City and didn't know there was a festival going on here.

A small stage was in front of them that divided two sides.

Valerie inhaled deeply behind the left curtain side.

"How does it look? Is it nice? Ah never done this before…"

Anto, and the rest of his Pokémon, just smiled warmly along with Valerie's. "_Valerie this looks amazing. I really like it, as does Ohko, Sen, Lilly, and Takezo._"

"I'm having second thoughts about this."

"**If it amounts to anything,**" Takezo stepped in. "**We have faith in you to do it. You simply must believe in yourself.**"

"**Yo he's right! Ya gotta face it head on and punch that punk in the face to show how manly ya are!**"

"**Ohko, I am amazed at how dense you are.**" Lily rolled her eyes. "**Don't take him too seriously. The details seem to escape him sometimes, but he's right in facing it head on. I mean you've done this all the time before in shows and battles, why not now?**"

"**Yeah! What they said!**" Sen cheered.

Then Valerie's Pokémon came up to her with a shoe box.

"**What is this?**" The fairy type gym leader asked as she opened it up.

Valerie's Sylveon spoke out. "**I saw you pack that before we left for here, Mistress. I just thought it was time for it to stop collecting dust.**"

Her gray eyes widened as she took the simple object out of the box, despite all the years of never being used, its bright yellow color only faded little.

They all heard some gasps coming from the judges outside.

It was then Mrs. Akio stepped into their side of the curtain. "Valerie, Elesa has shown her theme for the show tomorrow, are you ready to show yours?"

Valerie tied something to her neck. It didn't seem to match anything she was wearing but she didn't care, rather it made her feel so ready.

"Please proceed." Valerie stated.

The woman couldn't help but smirk and do a quick wink. "Oh this'll be quite the sight…"

The curtain was raised and they all stepped out.

First and foremost, Sentinel, the Delta Charmeleon came out. He was an intimidating and scary looking Pokémon on his own despite his surprisingly docile nature. However, Valerie was able to make the walking undead Pokémon look lively with nothing but a simple yellow news boy cap hat, white wrist bands, and a white short scarf.

Ohko, despite having just one hand, was given a rather interesting look. He wore a long trench coat/long coat, similar to that of the Battle Subway Twins, Emmet and Ingo, but sleeker and colored in bright gold. He even had a train cap ready and slightly slanted on his head to hide his left eye, giving him a tougher more gangster look, especially with him using his right sleeve as an arm rest than actually wearing the trenchcoat.

Lily was beautiful before, but just like Sen, simple things really added in her look. She was now wearing a unique and stylized choice specs that had two different colored sides, red and blue like a magnet. She now carried around an Umbrella that was styled to be the face of an Emolga that was just her size.

Takezo looked noble. Valerie was amazing with gear and especially liked working on Takezo's items due to the fact he had similar mannerism and characteristics. Takezo was actually given two proper white samurai scabbard along with a waist belt that held a pouch for anything he might keep on the other side of his waist. Etched into the scabbards were symbols of electricity.

Finally, Anto stepped into the light. He wore a black and white stripped long sleeve shirt underneath a yellow hooded jacket with pockets on both sides above his torso and a red edge trimming on the left side and a blue edge trimming on the right side. He wore black and slightly gray travel jeans that looked a little baggy, and he lastly fashioned a red shoe on his right foot and a blue on his left foot.

All in all, Anto's theme looked much like something from Elesa's work.

The judge's eyes all widened. Alder was the first to react and burst out laughing.

"Oh that looks so wonderful! I'm actually glad I came here after all!"

Valerie stepped out after them. She wondered why they were like that, until she looked over to Elesa's work.

"Wha…"

The Gym leader from Kalos was surprised and in utter shock. She placed her hands near her mouth after she gasped.

Elesa's work looked exactly like her major clothes on fairy type Pokémon!

All of Black's Pokémon, and Black himself were all wearing colors and clothes that styled both after her culture and Pokémon.

She turned her gray eyes towards the girl she once called friend. When she saw her blue eyes, she noticed how they weren't looking at her, they were focused on the scarf that was clashing with her usual attire, but was all too familiar to her.

"You… kept that?" Elesa asked.

The air turned silent as everyone looked between both Valerie and Elesa.

Alder whispered over to his fellow judges quickly. "I'm actually so glad we don't actually have to judge this." They all silently nodded in agreement.

"Yes, ah did. … Ah never said thank you for giving it to me."

"Oh. Well… you're welcome… I thought you might have thrown that away a long time ago."

Valerie gripped tightly to the simple piece of cloth. "Never. Elesa, ah would also like to say, Ah'm sorry."

The Unovian Gym Leader stared back with wide eyes.

"Ah was so petty, and ah let mah anger get the better of me. Looking back, ah realize ah did many stupid things."

Surprisingly or maybe not, Elesa laughed. "Oh Arceus! … I'm—I'm sorry it's just—I also thought about our past and saw how much of an idiot I was. I thought it would be a great idea to try and make up to you by doing some of your styles, which was insanely tedious."

Anto started silently walking towards Black.

"Yuh did that too? Ah was given the inspiration as well to do yur works for this, just so Ah would get the chance to apologize," Valerie slowly said, taking off her scarf. "But ah would very much like us to be friends again." She finished as she walked up and handed the old scarf back to her.

Elesa took the scarf carefully. "I would really like that."

Black raised out his fist towards Anto, who fist bumped it as they never took their eyes off the two.

Alder, Wallace, Hilda, and Fatina spotted that small motion and couldn't help but laugh and clap. Mrs. Akio clapped as well in the background.

"Well!" Hilda stood up jubilantly and walked towards the two. "Now may I ask again? Do you tow have an idea for the fashion show's theme tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow does sound like a lot of work," Valerie started.

"Not to mention we may have to stay up the whole night and then some to come up with new designs and other such preparations." Elesa added in.

But they both looked at each other and nodded.

"But I think we have a good idea what to do." Elesa answered, slightly emphasizing the 'we' part of that sentence.

"Oh don't worry, I have many people in mind to make this work!" Hilda smiled joyfully as she lead the two out. Both Gym leader's Pokémon followed after them.

"_Jolly good show, Mr. Black. I do say I would call us bloody brilliant._" Anto exclaimed.

"Come now, Mr. Anto. By jove, I do believe you deserve the applause for such a concoction."

"_You are too kind good sir. Nay! I refuse to take the credit for a team effort!_"

The two broke into laughter.

A new laughter joined them. "Something tells me you two trainers are going to have quite the future!"

The two turned to see Alder with Wallace beside him.

Black pointed dramatically at Alder. "Oh my gosh! You're Alder the Unova Champion! Battle me!"

Alder laughed again. "Haha! I like your spunk kid. But unfortunately I left my friends back home." He rubbed the back of his head.

Wallace spoke out as well. "I must commend you both. I was a little disheartened when I heard about the two's situation, but it appears there were others already working on fixing the problem."

Anto and Black looked at each other. Then they both broke eye contact with them.

"What are you talking about? All we did was wear these clothes they made. I didn't even know they had issues with each other." Black shrugged his shoulders and Anto just did the same nonchalantly.

Alder laughed, went behind the two and hugged them. "I'll definitely keep an eye out for you two in the future! Good luck in the Music Tournament!"

Wallace and Alder said their goodbyes after that, following after Mrs. Akio and Fatina who left a little earlier.

"Well, now I gotta see what other job Prez wants me to do. See ya Anto, good luck with the movie!"

Anto paled as he remembered he had to go back to that horrible place tomorrow, but said goodbye to Black and his Pokémon as he was left all alone with his Pokémon.

"_Well who's hungry?_" Anto looked to his Pokémon. They all raised their hands.

Then a door opening caught their attention.

Anto was surprised to see Valerie walking up to him.

"_Oh Valerie, hi. Is something wrong?_"

"Oh no. Everything is actually… amazing. But Ah came back here to ask yuh something: did yuh have anything to do with having Ely and me make clothes about the other? Did yuh set up this entire event?"

Anto 'psshed' and slapped the air in front of him nonchalantly. "_I don't know what you're talking about. All I did was suggest that to you. How was I supposed to know she would do the same thing?_"

"Ah see…" Valerie mused. She then smiled and bent down.

The model kissed Anto on the cheek.

There was a very long and thought provoking second that passed by before Anto's face became filled with blood as he realized what happened.

"Then that was for giving me such a wonderful idea.~" Valerie giggled before saying her farewell to the young boy.

"**Whoa! I didn't know Boss could turn his face red! You gotta teach me how to do that!**"

"**Oh me too!**"

Ohko and Sentinel cried as they pointed innocently at their Trainer's face.

Lily broke into laughter while Takezo…

"**Congratulations Anto, 'You got game'.**"

**{Author's note}**

**WHOO! I'm finally done with this chapter! It was surprisingly longer to write than I expected it to be.**

**Thanks For MangoLimePie for helping me out with some of the plot ideas here. Go read some of his stories, he's got some nicely written pokemon battles in there.**

**And Anto and his pokemon have some new threads! Yes, they will be wearing that through out the rest of the story until I say otherwise! Valerie knows what she was doing. The fabric used to design the clothes were taken from a Galvantula and Ariados silk webs, and those spider silks are built to last and take heavy punishment! (I'll also briefly explain this again later on in the story.)**

**Next chapter goes back into the action with the second round of the tournament. And maybe a hint and what's going down for this event!**

**Since there are so many characters here, it's kind of hard to chart them out and explore who they are, but so far, I rather enjoy writing out these people. I hope you are too.**

**I'm also planning for everyone to meet soon. (Oi vey that's a lot.)**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	21. Ep 21:The Grass That's Greener

Episode 21: Different as Ice and Fire.

He remembered those days, so long ago under the dessert sun.

Even before he had an official machine, the boy knew how to steal Pokémon.

It was so easy despite there being an unwritten but essential rule in that one had to be a trainer to _survive_ in Orre. Pokémon kept you safe, kept you alive there from the bandits, the endless dessert, and rarely the insanity of isolation from the 'emptiest desserts' in the world.

He remembered trudging through those hot singeing ground on his dried and cracking feet. His mouth was aching for water, and he didn't even know if he would live to see that blasted sun set.

All he could behold with his young eyes, was a great and vast emptiness.

And he was probably going to die here, all alone, unwanted, uncared for, and miserable.

…

"HAHAHA!"

Thinking back, he laughed. If he were to go directly back into that time he would probably smile, not grin, not smirk, not twitch his lips, but he would truly smile with a glint of great pride.

Despite all those things against him, his weakening body, the harsh dessert lands, the great empty fields, he held on.

Because two weak and tired creatures were still in his arms.

The two Evees were weak, but did their best to cuddle under the boy's chest, trying to find some protection from the scorching sun.

The boy kept walking, moving past the pain.

He wasn't alone.

He had to move on for them, for himself. He needed to survive.

He promised 'him' that he would.

When he saw that town on top of the hill, he smiled. He laughed. It was as if he was saying…

That the best you got at trying to kill me?

* * *

Meanwhile, in a spot where the differences were as clear as night and day...

It was a winter over there. The snow gently fell outside the grand and expensive window.

She touched the cold glass and saw her breath fog up the glass on her side.

She sat in boredom, looking out to the clouds with just a book about theology on her lap.

There was nothing to do in this grand house of nothingness. That could stretch miles and miles of the finest grass and lighting yet still feel so empty.

Despite all the servants at her beck and call, she felt so alone.

Her father and mother were busy, and her favorite servant had other duties to attend to. It would be a few more years before this loneliness would fade.

However, if she were to come back at this time, she would tell her younger self it would get better. She promised.

This was the moment she realized how alone she could be, and how much she detested it.

* * *

[Present Time]

"_Double battles?_"

Wes smiled. "Looks like the next set of matches has double battles. This time, we're allowed four Pokémon, but two of them have to get knocked out." The thief from Orre looked forward to today's battle. He had a lot of experience in double battles.

Both He and Anto were currently going over a news board that had some new updates in the schedules for The Music Festival.

"_Oh right. Now that I think about it, didn't you say Orre has nothing but Double battles for some reason? Why is it like that?_"

"I never really noticed that, but yeah. Orre region is pretty much all double battles. I think some guy in our past thought two Pokémon would be better than one, and other people like the idea so much, they started doing it too."

"_Huh, rudimentary. But this also means you've kind of have an advantage for having way more experience in double battles right? I've never had an official double battle, other than training with you Ohko and Takezo the week before Lenora._"

"Then here are two tips. One, don't have your Pokémon split up and have separate one on one fights. If there's something you don't do in Orre, it's think that Doubles are just two single matches happening in the same time. Your Pokémon work together and cover the other's weakness."

Wes raised a second finger. "Two, and this one is the most important one, **pay attention to both of your Pokémon**. I cannot stress that one enough. Double battles are more hectic and chaotic, if you lose track of one of your Pokémon for an instant it's game over."

Anto nodded at that. "_Oh thanks._"

"There they are!"

The two looked over to see Emerald, Sapphire, Jamie, Sebastian, and Arran walked up to them.

These groups of people got together after Anto and Emerald's battle.

[Previously…]

"Dang, you're good, but I have to say, I know other trainers who are better than you." Emerald explained to the taller but younger mute beside him.

Anto nodded silently.

"Yo! You two!" Sapphire called out before smiling at Emerald. "Didn't expect you to lose so early, squirt."

"Oh hardy ha ha. Weren't you kicked out first round in another certain knockout tournament?" Emerald smiled at Sapphire's dropped mood.

"Hey Anto. Nice job pulling off a win." Wes came in afterward.

Anto looked over the Snagger and saw a surprisingly large amount of people behind him.

"So your name is Anto huh?" one of the taller people of the group with chestnut brown hair waved to him. "Name's Sebastian Wong, and this guy next to me is your biggest fan, Jamie Stanton."

The young boy around Anto's age with green eyes blushed and yelled back at him. "I am not his fan!" he shrieked oddly.

Sebastian casually dismissed that nad pointed over to the guy behind him. "The purple haired brooder over there is Arran Valliquete."

Anto waved politely at the guy who just continued to vacantly stare at him.

"Sorry, he's like that… to everyone apparently." He clapped his hands. "Anywho, great match you, both of you put on. I've never seen that move before from the Sceptile." He started a conversation.

Everyone afterward decided to hang out and talked a bit more about each other.

And that was how they all met.

[Present time.]

"So today's battles are double battles?" Jamie asked as he looked at the announcement board. "Interesting how they keep changing the battle rules."

"Think this means that the winners will do triple battles?" Sapphire asked. "I've heard of those battles, but I also heard they're more complicated than it sounds."

"Who knows, but I wonder which poor sap will face against me next." Sebastian claimed while spinning a Poké Ball on the top of his finger.

Wes smiled before looking ahead and frowning. "I'm gonna go get some lunch Anto, be back soon." He said quickly before leaving. Anto wondered why Wes said that before he heard another voice calling out to him. He turned back to see Tracey, Aster, and Summer on their way here.

It was then something clicked in Anto's head: was Wes and Summer still having problems? Alright, he was going to have a word about this later.

* * *

Platinum Berlitz walked down the streets listening to her MP4 player. She was rather enjoying her time in Unova, and was now listening to some very catchy tunes she recently received, specifically a personally signed disk from both the Go Rock Quad's new Square Album, and much to her embarrassment, Jail House Blues Jazz Soul. There was simply something so soothing to listen to hearing bulky, rough looking men playing some of the most relaxing tunes she has ever heard of.

She was actually unsure of how her two best friends, Pearl and Diamond would react if they saw her doing this, since she had to save face after all. Which was why she was by herself as of this moment.

As the next song played, she closed her eyes…

But then she was distracted as she saw a young boy and his Patrat get pushed around.

A rather tall red haired ace trainer and several others laughed at the downed trainer and his injured Pokémon.

"I can't believe you won the first round. I bet either you were lucky or your opponent forfeited." He said rather cockily as he spun a Luxury Ball in his hand.

"No I didn't! I won fair and square! It's not my fault your idiot friend got cocky!"

"What was that you punk?!" An ace trainer beside the red head cried angrily and shook his fist.

Platinum stepped in. "I believe that is enough."

Some of the guys whistled, and made the heiress' skin crawl.

"Oh hey… what's your name babe?" The person said with a rather cocky flair.

Platinum scowled at the comment. "My name is not Babe! Nor do I feel revealing my name to strangers."

Then she turned to the downed boy. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but my buddy…"

"I'll help you to the center."

She was about to leave with the injured boy when some of the boy's friends stopped her.

"Aww come on. I was only teasing, can't you take a joke?"

"I can take jokes. For one, I find all your faces hilarious." Platinum deadpanned and glared at the leader.

"What was that!?" The leader and his crew grunted and growled.

Platinum folded her arms. "Did it fly over your head?"

All of them reached for the Pokémon, as did Platinum.

"Listen here, you b—" He didn't get to finish that.

Suddenly, something rather amazing happened: all of the groups belts were ripped from their pants and all flew into one direction. Because of this, their pants fell down revealing their drawers.

"What the!?" The leader screamed and his crew panicked.

Platinum and the boy looked to see where the belts went and saw an Espeon levitating several or more belts around it.

"Excuse me, I think you dropped something." The trainer of the Espeon smirked as he walked towards them.

Platinum recognized the trainer in blue. "Wes?"

"What the heck!?" The jerks exclaimed.

"You might wanna put on your pants before the police come and arrest you for public display of your tidy-whites." Wes motioned as Espeon launched the belts into the port.

"Y-you'll regret that punk!" The trainers claimed as they picked up their pants and all ran after their belts since some had their Pokémon in them.

"I had it under control." Platinum said as Wes walked up to her.

"Sure you did. I just made it a little easier that's all. It's fun having a psychic type," Wes expressed before looking to the kid. "Come on kiddo, I think the Center is nearby."

[Later]

Platinum and Wes both left the boy after he had said his thanks.

"I did not know you were entering the tournament." Platinum added as she spotted the custom XTransciever on him.

"Hey, I'm a trainer too White Scarf."

The child prodigy looked in shock at the survivor. "Excuse me? What did you call me?"

"White Scarf. I had this funny nickname for you and Diamond and Pearl, since all three of you wear scarves. I called you guys the Scarf Trio since you're also from Sinnoh and alliteration is fun."

Platinum huffed. "My name is Platinum Berlitz, heir of a noble family. I do not want to be called after a simple garment I wear around my neck!"

"I see," Wes nodded and seemed to ponder what she said. "Nah, I'm still calling you White Scarf." He decided.

"Why you! Aha! What if I remove my scarf, then what!?" She said as she removed her scarf with a huff of self victory.

She wasn't expecting Wes to laugh at her.

"Oh Arceus, you're a bigger dork than Nerd." He laughed before walking ahead of her.

Platinum fumed. How dare he treat her like some child! She was not a nerd, nor a dork! "You take that back!"

"Why?" Wes asked her back honestly.

"Because… because I am not a dork! I've studied over seven hundred speech patterns and charted over three hundred geological temperatures and climate for Pokémon all over! I am a certified scientist and have received awards you could not even pronounce, you plebian!"

She huffed, lost her cool, and pouted.

"Ouch. I'm hurt," He faked being hurt before smiling another cocky smile that just seemed to drive her crazy. "Now come on. This plebian wants something to eat. I'm starving."

"Come back here and apologize!" Platinum started, grabbing his hand adamantly before hearing his stomach growl like an angry beast.

She blushed as she heard his stomach. "I-I Mean. Y-You can eat first." She admitted sheepishly. She remembered her adventures with Diamond and Pearl with Diamond's stomach almost always being empty after long travels. Dia wouldn't be able to concentrate well if he wasn't exactly full.

"Aww thanks."

Wes chuckled.

"Just for that, how bout I treat you to something. But let me guess, you eat and drink only the finest of meals huh White Scarf?"

She huffed again. "Do not mock me! I am not some spoiled princess! In fact, I'll let you choose my meal."

Those were words that she would later regret.

Wes turned back to the Heiress with a devilish smile.

"Oh?~"

Platinum flinched slightly, only now realizing the weight of her words.

"You're letting _me_ choose?"

"A-As long as you don't drug me. But I will not take back my word." Her family was very important to her and she would not back down.

The smile on Wes's face; however, still made her falter.

[Later…]

Wes couldn't stop smiling as the orders came in front of the two near their booth.

"T-Th…" Platinum struggled with her words.

There were two plates that each held a large burrito that seemingly was leaking red-orange-ish sauce.

Wes smiled as he took his burrito. "Ahh, the El Carolina Reaper, one of the most flavorful foods in the entire world!" He exclaimed excitedly before taking a bite. "Those flavors really pack a punch."

He looked at Platinum. "Is something wrong?"

"N-No!" She cried as she grabbed the finger food rather awkwardly. "I do not know why you would think such a thing would derail me from making you call my true name."

Wes smiled at her with faked innocence. The Carolina Reaper was one of the spiciest and hottest peppers in the world, and it just so happened that this was ordered at Taco Gong for only the bravest of souls.

So when Platinum bit the burrito—

"YAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

[Sorta later.]

"**Wes, as funny as that was, don't you think you kind of went overboard?**" Espeon inquired.

"**We once walked over a bed!**" One of the Zwelious heads claimed. "**Boards are very flat and taste bland.**" The other finished.

After finally calming down his laughter, Wes sat beside Platinum who was covering her face with a recently wet towel.

What had transpired after the Heiress ate the burrito seemed like straight out a comedy strip, as she felt her entire mouth and throat overload with flavor. Maybe it was from the fact she had a more sensitive tongue having to dine from great tasting dishes and such, but regardless she felt the burden of such a spicy meal. It was hilarious to see her panicking around before she threw out her Froslass and Empoleon and begged them among her shouts to make it stop.

However, her ghost/ice type panicked and was scared at the sight, and quickly froze her head before Platinum could explain properly.

Wes rolled into the floor laughing as hard as he ever could.

After thawing Platinum's face, the girl sat on a bench and hid her face in a towel, but even then Wes could see how red her ears were.

Wes sighed as he looked at the girl. "Whoo! Sorry, didn't expect all of_ that_ to happen. Want some water?" He asked as he got a slightly room temperature bottle of water.

Platinum looked up, tears in her eyes, flush in her face, and trying to glare at the boy from Orre. "I cannot believe you would do that! No wonder Summer wished to trade with me."

"OK, I admit, I'm a bit of a jerk—fine, a huge jerk. But I try not to be." He corrected as soon as he saw her narrow her eyes.

Umbreon came up behind Zwelious and Espeon. "**Hey guys, you'll never guess what I did!**"

Wes shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, my Pokémon aren't bad guys."

Espeon paled. "**Oh no.**"

Suddenly, a jet stream of boiling water was shot out, forcing everyone to duck.

They all looked over and saw an Empoleon in pain as she ran around bursting steaming water with tears running down her eyes.

"**What did you do!?**" Espeon asked horrified.

"**Oh I tricked Empoleon into finishing the burrito her mistress didn't finish,**" Umbreon explained as Wes Pokémon, Platinum's Froslass, and their trainers watched the flailing water and steel type launch streams of boiling water around him.** "… On the bright side, she now knows Scald.**"

"**Do you barbarians, have any class?**" The ice ghost narrowed her eyes.

"**Ooo! What's class?**"

"**Is it edible? And if it is not, can we still eat it anyway?**"

The two heads of Zwelious asked.

"**Oh Arceus.**" Froslass exclaimed.

Platinum acted quickly and recalled her Pokémon from his rampage. She couldn't help but notice Wes' laughing dark types and his chuckling Espeon.

"Uhh… congratulations, your Empoleon learned Scald?" Wes offered weakly.

That's it! She wouldn't take it anymore! It's true Wes did help her, but her entire time with Wes has been nothing but trouble and insult to injury! She would not take this! She was a proud Pokédex wielder and has helped saved the world even, why was she allowing herself to be made a fool out of this… jerk!

"Ugh!" Platinum exclaimed with rising anger. "You have the worst manners I have ever met! I am honestly surprised a jerk like you has friends! No wonder Summer hates you!" She yelled as she stood up and stormed off.

Wes remained silent as he let those words sink.

His Pokémon all watched the girl and her Froslass storm away.

"**Oh err, sorry Wes.**" Umbreon apologized in an abash manner.

"It's fine." Wes said without passion.

He sighed.

* * *

Summer sighed.

"Look, Anto. I can't tell you."

"_Alright. I won't force you to tell me, but I should mention that it makes me feel sad to see you and Wes like this. Just… please make up soon._"

The ranger reflected on the words he just said.

"… I'll think about it."

The younger boy looked at her hopefully.

"_Thank you._"

Summer dejectedly walked down the streets with Flow in her arms as she remembered her conversation with Anto.

"**Are you alright Summer?**"

"Not exactly. It's just something I messed up when Wes and I fell into those Ruins. … We haven't exactly patched things up yet."

"**What did you two talk about?**"

The Ranger's muscles tensed slightly, and the fairy psychic felt it in the arms carrying her.

"**I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, I'll wait for you to tell me.**"

Summer chuckled weakly at that.

"How is it that I've got so many patient friends?"

Then she noticed flow glancing over to a particular stomping and fuming girl.

"**Summer, isn't that girl over there…?**"

"Platinum?"

Summer wondered why the usually graceful and princess like Platinum Berlitz looks so disheveled and annoyed, very different from the usual air she first saw her as. It was odd to see her so grumpy and even looking vulnerable when she last recalled seeing the wise and knowledgeable girl with an air of poise and grace.

Summer placed flow down and the two walked over to the disturbed girl.

"**Miss Platinum?**" Flow telekinetically called out to the Heiress.

The blue haired princess froze and glanced around her after seemingly hearing a familiar voice within her head. It was then she spotted both Summer and Flow walking towards her.

"Ah, Summer," She managed a smile to the sweet Delta Pokémon. "Flow, a pleasure to meet you both again."

After Anto's artful win over Burgh, Flow accidentally exposed her ability to translate her language to others around her since Espeon did not tech her how to isolate the links between specific people yet. As such, when she cheered for Anto's victory with the 'Scarf Trio' nearby, they all heard Flow's voice in their minds.

Summer and Tracey had quite the time trying to explain how Flow could do that.

Regardless, as of now Summer focused on the task at hand. "Are you alright? What happened to you?"

She scoffed. "Hmpf! Do you have any idea who caused this?!"

The way she was directing that question to her… "It's Wes, isn't it?"

"Ugh, I can't believe him!"

"Uhm, what exactly did he do?" Summer became especially curious with Platinum's rage suddenly subsided and a blush appeared across her face.

"I… I don't want to talk about it. However, how exactly do you deal with him!?"

Summer smiled nervously. "I-I admit that he isn't the best of people, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Sure, he's a egotistical jerk who thinks he's better than everyone who I would like to do nothing more than shove one of his sweaty socks down his throat, stuff him in a chest and kick it off a cliff—what was I talking about?" Summer stopped herself before she continued her train of revenge.

"Ugh that ruffian! Didn't his parents teach him any manners?" Platinum whined. "I would like a good word with them if I ever met them."

Summer's mood dropped as she remembered. "Wes… doesn't have any parents."

Platinum's eyes widened, her rage vanished as soon as she heard those words. "I-I did not know that."

"Yeah, well I didn't either. Then I found out he lived a much, much harder life than you or I. What's worse is that I may have insulted him for that," Summer dourly said. "So he may act like a jerk, but that's because he has no idea how to make friends and is horrible at interacting with people. If anything, Anto vouches for him and they both get along quite well."

Platinum stayed quiet until her XTransciver started beeping, signaling her match coming up soon.

"Oh, it appears my next battle is coming up." She said.

The ranger perked up at this and picked up Flow again in her arms.

"Can I come along then? Where is it?"

The mature girl checked the watch. "Thankfully it's in the Small Court. So it should be easy to watch from."

* * *

The two girls were later joined by Diamond and Pearl on their way towards the arena.

The three of the group sat down in some nearby bleachers as they waited for Platinum's opponent to come by.

When he did, all of them had their eyes widened.

"Contestant #4, Wes Versus Contestant #2 Platinum Berlitz, begin!"

The two contests stared silently at each other before the two of them drew their chosen Pokémon and let them loose on the field.

"… **Well this is awkward.**" Espeon noted as a familiar Empoleon and Lopunny was now in front of them.

The Empoleon smiled wickedly before gathering energy and blasting a burst of boiling water towards Umbreon.

Umbreon side stepped away from the attack and noticed the steam coming from the left over puddles of water.

"**So does this mean you're still angry for that whole, tricking you into eating that burrito thing?**" Umbreon asked uselessly.

He got his answer as Empoleon attempted to blast him with another Scald, the attack she had unwilling learned earlier that day because of the dark type and was now using it to hurt him as painfully as possible. Doesn't the universe work in mysterious ways?

"Lopunny, Dizzy Punch on the Espeon!" Platinum cried out as she pointed to the lavender Pokémon.

"Psychic, push her back!"

"Dodge!"

The normal type charged forward, only to jump back with nimble grace as she avoided the blast of telekinetic energy smashed the ground she was just a few seconds ago.

The Lopunny jumped high, raising her leg and launching a high jump kick towards Umbreon.

Espeon and Wes acted quickly. A Reflect appeared but instead of blocking the attack, Espeon placed the energy wall above the stretched put leg of the Lopunny. Because of that, the leg kept flying past the barrier, but the rest of Lopunny's body smashed into the wall with the speed of the attack, activating the crash damage and allowing enough time for Umbreon to get out of the way.

Platinum tensed at the creative use of the move. Quickly she sent Empoleon to launch Ice Beams to attack the two eveelutions and cover the fallen ally. She didn't expect that Wes was obviously more coordinated in double battles. Thinking back, she did recall hearing from Summer that Wes was familiar at double battles.

Platinum returned Lopunny as Empoleon continued firing ice beams, and leaving trials of ice around the area. She then threw out Froslass into the fight.

"Froslass, Hail!" The calculating girl exclaimed and an ice storm hailed down on their battlefield. Wes cursed under his breath as he put on his visors in order to concentrate better on the fight. Weather controlled battles were always tricky to deal with.

"Umbreon, Protect on both of you!" Wes cried as the dark type jumped in front of his younger brother and formed a powerful forcefield that still held against a powered up Powder Snow and Ice Beam.

Wes looked ahead, Empoleon stood tall, unaffected by the weather since her species lived in cold weathers despite not being a true ice type. Also he could barely see Froslass under this weather which only meant that this particular Froslass had the Snow Cloak ability, great. As long as that Froslass was there, the Hail would continue to whittle down his Pokémon and get bombarded with heavy powered ice attacks.

However, that was far easier said than done. Snow Cloak was making a ghost Pokémon even more untouchable, and with Empoleon as her body guard, there was no easy or conventional way to get through this defense unless another weather team was present.

Still, Wes calmed himself down. "Espeon, back!"

He recalled his psychic type and sent out Delta Wartortle as he entered the icy field.

"**Hmm. Nice weather we are having, aren't we?**" the dark and fighting type asked.

"**I'm almost tempted to get hit by that Empoleon's Scald attack if it wasn't for the irony of it all.**"

The Delta Pokémon turned to the other dark type. "**Is that how irony is used?**"

"**Wait, what do you—incoming!**" Umbreon readied another Protect move, another green dome of energy appeared and prevented another blast of two powered up ice attacks.

Wartortle saw his opponents. Bitterly, he remembered as similar simulation he was forced into when he was back in the lab. Similar weather controlled Pokémon had an advantage over him and his teammate in the long run. However, Wartortle immediate noted how Empoleon was standing in front of the ghost and ice type, as if protecting the one giving them an advantage.

"**I'm hoping you can get past them right?**"

Wartortle smirked towards the natural dark type. "**Do you really think those blasted labcoats made me look like this for show?**"

"Umbreon, Secret Power!" Wes cried, making the Pokémon try to go on the offensive as it blasted chunks of ice towards the two Pokémon. Empoleon stood tall and smashed through the ice shards before firing another ice beam. Umbreon protected again, but this time, Powder Snow came right after the forcefield fell. Umbreon feeling the pain from the very increased ice attack. However, Empoleon acted quickly, aiming another Ice beam after the Powder Snow attack hit the dark type.

As Platinum pressed her assault, she wondered where that odd looking Wartortle went. She got her answer when Empoleon's shadow suddenly _stood up_ from the ground and Wartortle came bursting out in his spinning shell and unleashing a wide Dark Pulse between Empoleon and Froslass.

Attack hit both Pokémon and separated them, Wartortle stopped spinning quickly, and went after the Froslass with another Dark Pulse forming in his hands. Amazingly, Wartortle gathered the pulsating rings of the attack and made them all circle in such a way that they looked like a large shuriken. With that, The Delta Pokémon launched the attack again Froslass, throwing more of these Dark Shurikens one after another. They didn't look as powerful as a regular Dark Pulse, but it was obviously faster to re use and kept interrupting Froslass' concentration.

The hail was starting to die down.

Platinum wondered what Pokémon that was that could do that, but she would look at her Pokedex after she stopped the assault.

At her Lady's command, Empoleon fired another Ice Beam at the Wartortle, or at least tried to. Umbreon was able to come back and Crunch on the dual type with his back turned.

"**Miff mff!? (Miss me!?)**" Umbreon cried as he held on tightly as Empoleon thrashed around, trying to get the Pokémon off his shoulder.

Froslass, too that moment to launch a Shadow Ball at Wartortle, but he side stepped the attack. Froslass smiled and the attack kept flying and hit Umbreon off Empoleon's shoulder.

Wartortle was surprised, but then realized Froslass, and now Empoleon were focusing on him and he quickly faded away into a Shadow Sneak attack.

"Froslass, re cast Hail quickly! Empoleon keep dishing out attacks on that other Pokémon!"

Delta Wartortle saw Empoleon stand between him and Froslass. The hail was just about to stop, but the ninja turtle screamed towards something else.

"**You've got a clear shot, Umbreon!**" Wartortle cried.

Empoleon remembered she blasted the dark type in the opposite direction. She quickly turned back to see all runes of the Umbreon flickering brightly.

"**Shadow Unknown!**"

The ice around them turned dark within a certain radius the very edge of the dark radius just reached right under Froslass. A blast of dark coated ice spiked upward and stabbed the ghost ice type with dark energy. (Thankfully the attack just phased through and the energy through her body knocked her out unconscious.)

With that, the ghost type fell and Umbreon stopped the attack. However, the moment the attack stopped, Umbreon was blindsided with a Hydro pump and slammed into a nearby wall.

Both of them were down one Pokémon now the first trainer to knock out the other wins.

Wes recalled Umbreon and called out Zwelious, the two headed dragon looking particularly peppy today.

"**Hello me!**"  
"**Hi you!**"

Platinum thought for a moment before throwing out Rapidash as her Pokémon. However, she then recalled Empoleon and sent out Cherrim as well.

Wes narrowed his eyes at the grass type and fire type. He had a feeling he knew what was coming. "Oh not this again…"

"Cherrim! Sunny Day!"

Wes inwardly cursed as somehow, under a roof, the Sun shined brighter. Cherrim reverted to her Sunshine form and started to glow. The aura of the Pokémon went over to Rapidash as well and the ice around them started to melt.

Wes was not only facing another weather team again, he remembered that Cherrim had an ability called Flower Gift which allows Cherrim and her allies a boost in special defense and Attack while under the sun.

'_That. Bites_.' Wes grunted.

"Rapidash, Flame Wheel! Cherrim, Solarbeam on the Wartortle!"

With increased speed, Platinum's Pokémon pressed a powerful assault on Wes Pokémon. For Wartortle, his mobility with Shadow Sneak allowed him to avoid the Fast beam of power coming his way. However, Zwelious wasn't as nimble and was pretty much body checked by a very boosted Rapidash, if it wasn't for Zwelious being a dragon type, the attack would have hurt so much more.

It was then Wes briefly noticed something touching his feet.

Puddles of water were starting rise up and flood the area. From the extensive amount of ice attacks and snow attacks from the hail and the two ice users previously, it was all starting to melt very quickly under this heat.

Wes saw his reflection on a puddle, before one of his brows curled up in curiosity.

"Zwelious, return!" Wes called, out. Unfortunately, while Zwelious did have a resistance to both of the Pokémon's stabs, he was going to need his psychic type for this.

Espeon came out and found himself a little surprised at the wet puddles beneath him.

"**Whoa, whoa, whoa! What happened to all of the snow?! And why is there so much sunlight without sun!?**"

Wartortle jumped out of the shadows, and landed right beside Espeon in a battle stance. "**Our opponents appear to be weather users. I would like to make a joke about the weather, but it appears I'm too dry for it.**"

"**Why would you care about jokes at a time lik—wait a sec…**" Espeon stopped mid sentence as he replayed that sentence back in his head.

Unfortunately for the lavender Pokémon, his thoughts were interrupted as he had to dodge a fast Solarbeam and saw Rapidash burning the puddles of water where he threaded and trying very hard to chase Wartortle.

"Espeon! Use Psychic!" Wes cried.

The psychic's type eyes widened briefly before he focused back into the fight. He blasted Cherrim with a Psychic attack and hammering the smaller grass type down into the ground, forming a mini crater beneath him.

However, Cherrim got back up, looking more angry than hurt. Wes new that attack wouldn't do much with Cherrim's boost in Special Defense.

"Cherrim, Solarbeam! Rapidash, chase after your opponent with Flame Wheel!"

Platinum calmed herself down a bit, Wes somehow found a way past her Hail duo, but it looked like he was struggling against her Sunny Day duo. This time Cherrim was boosted from the weather conditions along with Rapidash, while she did have the clear advantage, she didn't want to let her guard down.

"Espeon, Reflect!" Wes suddenly yelled, Pointing his hand towards Wartortle and Rapidash where the former was about to use Stomp on the turtle. The psychic wall appeared, but quickly cracked and shattered from the boosted Rapidash's attack. Yet Wartortle was competent enough to fade back into the shadows to avoid being stomped on and he quickly moved himself to the walls where _somehow_ he was clinging on to it without opposable fingers and claws.

"How is he doing that?" Platinum asked.

"I… don't know." Wes stated before looking around him. "Hey, can we get back to the match now?"

Platinum looked back. "Cherrim, Solarbeam! Rapidash, Fire Blast!"

Espeon jumped out of the beam's radius while Wartortle leaped from the wall and towards one of the large and last standing ice pillars left over from the ice duo.

Rapidash fired another Fire Blast, the resulting huge, flame exploding even as Wartortle tried to descend downward.

The fiery explosion sent Wartortle landing badly and bouncing on the ground and already three inches of water on the floor.

Platinum knew this was her opportunity, she needed to just knock out one more Pokémon and both of her Pokémon were powered enough to overpower and shrug off Wes'.

"Rapidash, Flare Blitz!"

The water around them started to boiled and steam started coming around Rapidash as he charged with boosted speed towards the down Wartortle.

However, Espeon jumped between his ally and the charging fire type.

Platinum wondered what that would accomplish.

It was she saw a smirk curl up Wes' face.

"Now, Espeon! Throw all of it!"

Platinum wondered what he meant by that, until she noticed all the water around her from all the melted snow and ice gravitating towards Espeon.

'_A pseudo Surf!?_' Platinum cried as all the water gathered fast around the psychic type and showily launched a tidal wave towards the fast charging Pokémon in a slightly extravagant manner.

Rapidash just flared his body and ran even faster towards the water. With a burst of amazing speed as the water crashed on him, he busted through the wave with a large steam cloud and crashed into both Wartortle and Espeon with a weakened Flare Bltiz. While the attack was weakened by the water slightly, it still didn't stop the other boosts he built up during the Sunny Day and others.

As both Pokémon fell down, Platinum sighed in relief.

"The Winner! Contestant # 4, Wes!"

Platinum and everyone else was shocked to hear both Transciever's call Wes the winner when both Wartortle and Espeon were knocked out.

"Hey! Platinum won, stupid machines! I'll sue somebody!" Pearl cried out before he looked passionately at his two friends beside him. He saw the shocked look on Dia's face, but when he looked to Summer, she was looking at something else.

Wes had this nonchalant look on his face as he sighed and explained, "You know, I told Anto to 'pay attention to both of your Pokémon'. If you don't, well…"

As the steam died down from where Rapidash busted through the water, everyone saw Cherrim's unconscious form twitching on the ground with a burnt and ashy Rapidash foot print on her face.

"W-When!?" Platinum cried out. But then her mind raced. It was during Espeon's gathering of all the water! He must have swept up Cherrim during the gathering of water and sent him face first against Rapidash in the water! She didn't notice her grass type since she was too small and was distracted by how flashy Espeon made his attack.

The reason why Wes was declared the winner was because Platinum lost two Pokémon before Wes did. Cherrim was knocked out before Espeon and Wartortle were!

"You tricked me! Again!" Platinum accused.

Surprisingly, Wes actually looked a bit abashed as he walked up to her, recalling his two downed Pokémon. "Err, yeah. Sorry. If it makes you feel better, I couldn't have won without tricks. You're Pokémon are pretty strong."

"I… I see…" She said, a little unsure of what exactly to say.

"Look," Wes gazed at her solemnly to which Platinum looked at those intense orange and amber eyes. "I'm sorry for earlier today too. I'm kind of…"

"Ill mannered? Impolite? Uncivilized? Sadistic? Tactless? Disrespectful?" Platinum deadpanned as she listed those words easily.

"Trying to make a point here."

Platinum folded her arms.

Wes rolled his eyes as he saw Summer, Diamond, and a slightly angry Pearl coming his way.

"I may be… all of those… so sorry. I guess. I'm not that good with people…" He said her name.

Platinum lessened her arms but didn't remove them. "… I suppose I can forgive you," Wes had to hold the urge to roll his eyes. "But I too have to apologize for snapping at you. It was unladylike."

"It's fine White Scarf," Platinum glared at the boy. "Fine! _Platinum_."

"That's Lady Berlitz for you! My friends are allowed to call me that name," She couldn't help but smile that time. "But in time, I'll allow you to call me that again."

Wes looked over to Summer, making the ranger flinch slightly. "I also owe you an apology, Nerd… Summer."

"Yeah well... at least you're trying, so I'm sorry too." She said.

Dia and Pearl didn't exactly know what was going on, but they seemed to respect that there were some personal issues being resolved. Besides Platinum could tell them all later.

Wes smirked. "Well at least you're not asking me to call you something stupid."

Platinum huffed. "I might re consider if next time, you don't trick me into eating something that… horrible!" She shuddered as she recalled the burrito.

"It's a date." Wes said before he walked out quickly with his back facing all four of them.

After Wes being ten away steps, what the Snagger said finally clicked on the four of them.

"D-D-D-D-" Platinum stammered with a flushed and red face. She looked down and put her hands on her face trying to wrap her head around a concept she's never really understood before.

"Did he just ask you out on a date!?" Summer cried out, looking flustered in surprise.

"What!? No!" Pearl denied vehemently before running after Wes. "Hey, you come back here!"

Meanwhile, Dia just stared. It was like his mind couldn't even function as the two girls around him just blushed with red at the sudden and abrupt mention of a date.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Oh Wes, your character is so fun to write.**

**I really, really enjoyed writing the fight between Wes and Platinum. When I first read through Platinum's story on both the Diamond/Pearl Story Arc and the Platinum Arc, I saw how much of a prodigy she was, being an expert in battling and understanding Pokémon and making epic strategies.**

**So when I pitted her against Wes, I wondered what kind of edge would Wes use against Pokémon that are clearly stronger than his and a trainer who is over all smarter at strategies than him. **

**Then it hit me!**

**Wes is a survivor and a thief. And if Aladin has taught me anything, Street rats are unusually clever. Wes here knew he didn't stand much of chance in direct fights, which is why he relied on deception and tricky to win. I made him have Empoleon focus on Wartortle so Umbreon would have a clear shot with a wide Aoe attack on Froslass, and his answer to two stronger powered up Pokémon? Have them beat each other.**

**I really enjoy writing battles! If you guys look over all of them there's always some unique gimmick to them, and they're soooo much fun to come up with! I do have this fear that at the rate I'm going, I'm going to waste all of them before the end of the story… uhhhhhh… but it's too fun not to think of that!**

**Also, I apologize briefly for the lack of OCs using characters, but I assure you all that you'll all have more prominent story arcs in the up and coming chapters!**

**Even Also-er! I may have done some… shipping… more obscure relationships! I imagine Wes and Platinum being slight parallels of Aladin and Jasmine, only more sarcastic and aloof.**

**Why ship tease them? Because I can, beaver dam it! And I think it would be fun!**

**For those actually curious, there was a reason why Summer and Wes had an earlier argument, but deciding on a bit, revealing it here was kind of odd, so I have to find a better timing for it elsewhere.**

**As I said the romance in this story is kind of… little, I might focus a bit more on something like that later on, but I'm not good at writing at romance. I've been reading some to try and get some ideas, but I want to ease in when I can. That absolute one thing I loathe to do is force things awkwardly.**

**As such that's it for these long author notes.**

**Edit: Thanks to **What Lies Beyond **for ****telling me about Empoleon being a girl.**

**I do hope you all enjoy the chapter and thanks for reading!**

* * *

[?]

Over there, faraway in an impossible place and impossible time…

There was a girl, a princess even. Hair deep blue and eyes cold as ice, she hated the desert sun despite being under a grand house to suit her needs.

To her surprise, a boy had broken in, he looked dirty, rough, jagged, but he seemed tired and injured. Below him were two small Evees, looking dirty as if they had trekked through the desert.

"Hey, girly, I'm hungry. Where's your food?" He cried out with annoyed bluntness.

"Do you have any manners?" The rich princess asked the street rat.

"Screw it, I'll go look for food myself." The ruffian said as he and his Evees made their way.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" The adults never ignored her, why was this ruffian doing that? She grabbed his arm and then she heard a loud grumbling sound.

"Eek!' She yelped. "W-What was that?"

"I'm hungry, duh! My stomach's growling. Hasn't shut up since." Then a brow raised and the boy gave a curious look to the girl. "Wait, you don't know what a stomach growling sounds like? Are you stupid girly?"

"Stupid!?" The girl cried in anger, she was a genius! Her parents were proud of her accomplishments and her teachers also praised her. How dare this ruffian accuse her of such lies! "Take that back!"

"Why?"

The prim princess pouted. "I'll show you! I am not stupid! The kitchen is in the other direction, you ruffian, follow me!"

"Jeez, you shout so much…" The boy said as he wiped his ears nonchalantly with his fingers and followed the girl. The two Evees smiled, wagged their fluffy and dirty tails excitedly before following the boy and the girl.


	22. Ep 22: Interlude 1

**{Author Notes.} **

**Hey guys, I'm trying something new today, I'm deciding a bit on the next battles and plans and such, but there were some ideas that I wanted to write.**

**With that in mind, today's Chapter is an Interlude that jumps around from Past and Present.**

**This chapter is going to have over several parts and skits where either shows reflections of the past, or some of the characters messing around in the present.**

**Hope you like it.**

* * *

Interlude 1: Before they were called Bizarre...

[Takezo: A talk under the Cherry Blossom]

"Do you know… how to be strong?"

Is it physical strength?

"Hmm…"

Is it honor or courage?

"Hmm…"

The ability to care for something and protect it?

"Hmm…"

A strong tactical mind that can see through any situation?

"Hmm…"

… Sharp senses?

"Hmm…"

Teacher, I do not understand. Why do you ask me a question, yet not validate whether I am wrong or right?

"That is because…. Even I don't know! Bwahahaha!"

…

"Oh don't give me such a look. If you meet people out there, you will find out that there are many interpretations of how to be strong. Some will claim it something tangible, like physical or mental strength, some will say it is the inner soul where people are courageous and fight valiantly for something they truly believe in."

Then… what makes you strong then Teacher?

"Aww thank you, for thinking I'm actually powerful. No, truth of the matter is that there will always be someone more powerful than you… Yet…"

…?

"Little One, when a young child sits down, what must he do when he is done sitting down?"

He stands up. Or in your case, Teacher, he lies on his back and snores.

"Gack! How sharp your tongue is, Pupil! Now if only you could use your tongue as a blade, then you would be the finest sword and word smith the world hath ever known! Bwahahaha!"

I am still curious at the point you were previously trying to make.

"Ahh yes. Erhm! You are correct, the child must eventually stand up, as do many other living beings do. Now answer this: do we only stand up once and remain sitting down for the rest of our lives?"

No, we stand up after sitting down since it is the only way to move forward.

"Yes, whenever we fall, we must learn to rise up. From what I can gather, it matters not how strong one is, the world will always be stronger, so therefore it is not about being strong, it is about surviving the hardships in life and rising from them."

… But what about this Cherry Blossom Tree in front of us, Teacher? Once the petals fall, they don't fly back up into the tree. Do they not stay in the ground?

"Ahh youth, always so clever. You are partly true on that, Little One. However, I would like to think we should only stay down once we are dead."

So is this your answer then Teacher? Being strong is rising again after falling?

"Well actually… I still don't know. I would like to think what I said is right, but the only part I'm truly certain about what I said was that the world was always stronger. Life is far too unpredictable and bizarre to truly have one overwhelming truth."

I… I am confused, Teacher.

"… One day, you will find your own path and ideals that will make you strong despite all the others. Don't be afraid to pursue them."

Teacher… you could have just said that from the start.

"You got me there, Little One! But if given the choice, I would do all of that again just so you and I can sit here and enjoy the Cherry Blossoms bloom…"

So basically this was all a poor attempt of striking a conversation with me?

"I never was any good with the philosophy part of Samurai Teacher School. I only graduated by Tauros-craping my way towards that class. Got a C- (minus), the finest dang C minus the world had ever known!"

Why do I have the foreboding feeling you'll be teaching me very strange things?

"Oh come now, Little One, have some faith in your teacher. Now, the next lesson, how young teenagers mate!"

* * *

[Ohko: One arm, but all heart.]

A very long time ago, before he found himself among allies and friends, he was alone and bullied.

"**Man, this poser is all bark and no bite. What's this fool think he's doing, challenging us with only one arm. I bet he can't even block.**"

Before Ohko became Ohko, he was called many other things, freak, wannabe, loser, one-armed. He didn't know why he was born with only one arm. For as long as he could remember, he only had one right arm, and he was picked on ever since he was young.

Being alone a good chunk of his life, he never really understood things as much as others did.

He did know one thing, he hated how they kept picking up on him, how they kept insulting him.

However, fate and science was kind to this Sawk. His species have always been known to train. Whenever this one armed Sawk was beaten down, he would soon rise up and practice punching and kicking from sunset to sun rise, almost stubbornly to the point of exhaustion. He wasn't social as other Pokémon, but his knowledge went into how to properly punch something, how to kick something, how to kick something hard, how to kick something fast, how to train well without too much effort.

With every insult, ten punches. With every defeat, one hundred punches.

This Sawk trained hard night and day, day and night—or what he called, 'bright thing that hurts to look at' (Day) and 'Many lights that don't hurt to look at' (Night).

As he grew stronger, he started to enjoy fighting. There might have been something biological in fighting types that just pushed their adrenaline more than any other types in the world, but for this Sawk, he may have believed that this feeling was joy which was why he sought more and more fights whenever he was insulted, which is why he took on impossible odds and threw himself at them, wanting to see how far he can go.

He wanted to prove them all wrong. He wasn't weak, he wasn't stupid, or an idiot… whatever those words meant anyway.

It came to a point where he would actually start winning his fights. Despite his enemies' numbers, he found out that they can only dish out, they couldn't take it.

Their jaws were fragile compared to the rocks he always punched his one fist and two legs with. Their hits didn't hurt as much as they used to anymore, they were softer, even though there were many they didn't hurt as much.

They finally stopped making fun of him after he stood on top of a pile of Timburr, Gurdurr, Throh, and other Sawks as well and screamed at the top of his lungs, "**NO SERIOUSLY, WHAT DOES AN IDIOT MEAN**!?"

The one armed Sawk found out something after he won. He was alone.

The other cruel people who pestered and belittled him, were strangely the only Pokémon that were around him. After he beat them all, they stayed their distance away from him.

Even when winning, he felt like he lost.

But then recently, more Pokémon had been migrating to his area of the forest. There was some kind of powerful Pokémon there that was scaring the rest of the other Pokémon into their territory.

Among the scared Pokémon, he heard something about creatures called humans, but no one ever talked to him about it directly.

So then he once overheard other Pokémon talk about these trainers and how other Pokémon become their partners. When he overheard the wild Pokémon, it was over the fact that two wild Sawks were caring over a third, injured Sawk that was defeated by a trainer's Pokémon.

They were all saying horrible things and how badly the third Sawk was beaten up, but the one armed Sawk grew interested. Yet he found out that the humans were in the direction of where this powerful bully Pokémon was.

Sawk clenched his one good fist in excitment. This was getting better and better.

If there was one thing that Sawk did still enjoy, it was fighting.

He made his way, just picking a direction and going that way even though it wasn't the direction where the refugees came from. Planning was still not his forte.

As he continued on, he sensed something running fast at him, a weird Sawk looking like creature that was pink looking instead of the deep maroon red-ish color Throhs were.

It kind of looked scared of him, but he didn't really think of that. Most people coming up to him always wanted to challenge him, and he wasn't one to back down. He attacked the strange creature and wondered why it didn't throw a punch yet.

When the strange creature tripped, he thought he was going to win easy.

But then he came along, faster than any punches he had seen, a small Patrat tried to hit him with two wooden blades.

The rest is history, and later would be described by the simple minded Sawk-turned-Ohko as, "**The Best Crew ever!**"

* * *

[Wes and N: The Thief and The King]

Wes was really starting to get used to the food in anywhere from Orre. Wasn't that hard really, whatever scraps that were left over and shipped to Orre from other countries were definitely not hard to miss.

Still though, he was really enjoying some coffee ever since Summer and Platinum took him to this coffee shop. But while he enjoy—tolerated their company. He noticed that from time to time that he was stared at from other people, specifically other trainers and guys around his age. He wondered why though? When he first appeared, no one seemed to even make eye contact out of fear, but the punks somehow got the nerve to give him the dirty eye without him looking later on.

Ahh! Of course! It was his company! The girls!

'Those punks must have been giving me the stink eye because I've been hanging out with girls! I bet they think I'm sort of sissy or something!'

He thought so.

And he was dead wrong. Amazingly, despite Wes' smart-aleck mouth, he was actually surprisingly oblivious to the fact that two gorgeous girls were giving him their undivided attention. What? It's not his fault that the only humans around him a huge majority of his childhood were a bunch of rowdy and uneducated guys.

"Um excuse me," Wes turned over and saw a maid looking slightly nervous at him. "Do you mind if you share a table with someone? We are currently full again…"

"… Go for it." Wes answered as he sipped more coffee. It was pretty good, but he wondered why Platinum like this so much since it was really bitter.

The maid nodded and looked behind here. "Is this alright sir?"

"Yes thank you."

Wes looked up to see his tablemate happened to be a pretty boy with green hair and some kind of cube for a necklace.

"Hello."

"Yo."

Wes took another sip of the coffee he was drinking. He was wondering whether or not to start adding some sugar or crème into his coffee, or anything else to lower the bitterness of it all before he put his drink down and stared casually back at the now glaring man in front of him.

"I don't suggest glaring like that. I hear it's bad for your skin."

"You are one of the trainers participating in the glorified Music Festival Tournament, contestant #4 Wes."

"Huh, well I've been called worse things, but how rude of me. You took the liberty of knowing recognizing me, but I don't know who you are." Wes nonchalantly answered back. He didn't really care that this guy was passive aggressively insulting him. Heck he's dealt with even worse people better, but if there was anything that helped him just a little it was humoring these people, either talk to them about it, or casually move the topic away to something more tolerable.

"My name is N, and I will be the one to free Pokémon from their trainers." The Snagger raised his brow since that name sounded very familiar.

Wes automatically said, "Been there done that."

"Excuse me!?"

Wes inwardly noted that he may have accidentally revealed himself to be a Pokémon thief in front of some random trainer.

The scornful face of N grew. "What do you mean you've already freed your Pokémon?! They're still trapped in their Poké Balls!"

While Wes, on the other hand, simply got confused at N's accusation. "What are you talking about? Aren't you talking about stealing Pokémon from other trainers?"

"I'm not stealing!" N yelled out half hysterically, somewhat losing his cool before coughing and calming himself down. "I'm liberating the Pokémon from their cruel trainers!"

"… So stealing. Basically." Wes repeated. He also thought that would be a fun excuse to use if he ever got to use his Snag Machine again.

"It's not stealing! I'm taking all the brainwashed Pokémon from bad trainers and purifying them from the darkness that trainers tainted them within their hearts!" N proclaimed to the Snagger.

"That sounds stupid." Wes thought. But he couldn't help but hear that line sounding very, very familiar. Maybe he was supposed to be doing something else along those lines if he wasn't here? … Nah it sounds too crazy, next you'd tell him he had to be with this red haired girl that followed him around and wasn't all that helpful except for talking to him and reminding him like some nagging mother.

… Which Summer kind of is… huh. Except she isn't a red head. Too bad really; red heads were hot according to Wes.

"Have you no shame treating your Pokémon into your own selfish whims?!" N accused harshly.

"No." Wes replied leisurely while sipping his coffee.

He admits he's a selfish jerk, but his Pokémon put up with him. And he puts up with them. You can just see the tolerance both trainer and Pokémon have for each other.

N was rather shocked at the reply he was given. "W-What!? Don't you care about other people but yourself!?"

Wes pointed his finger up, opened his mouth, but froze as he thought about that more.

"…" The Snagger from Orre placed his hand over his mouth.

Wes then put his mouth down and looked to N with an unreadable face.

"Can I answer that question in a later time?"

"The heck!? A simple 'Yes' or 'No' should be one of the answers to that!" N cried out hysterically at Wes' deadpan expression. What was with all these strange people he was meeting recently?

It was then N automatically remembered the boy he had fought, one with the Patrat and casual smile.

"Oh trust me; simple hasn't fit me in a while." Wes smirked, rather enjoying the annoyed look on the person's face.

Wait, what did Platinum say to him about manners?

Blah, Blah, Blah-don't insult someone every few seconds you dunce! Blah, Blah, something about a scarf and ring… blah blah blah, the Arm Strong Jewel has been passed down the line for generations—no, Wes probably confused something else with that previous part.

"By the way, we are in a coffee café. Aren't you going to order something? I've been told over and over by two naggers that it's always a good idea to have a drink with someone."

N raised his brow. What was with the sudden change in character? Though to be honest; thinking of this jerk and that Anto boy was starting to give him a headache. He could try to argue with him, but he had this feeling at the back of his mind that would be like trying to convince a wall to run a marathon.

Maybe he would at least have some iced tea. A drink does sound like a good idea right about now.

"I'll have the iced tea." N resigned into his seat before calling a waiter.

"So," Wes started after the maid took their order. "Are you this M character I've heard about?"

N stared incredulously and stiffly at Wes after seeing the maid leave with his order. "M?"

Wes drank more of his coffee before continuing. "I mean yeah, how horny were your parents to name you after that? No wonder everyone tells me that you're crazy."

It should be noted that both Platinum and Summer are having trouble getting rid of Wes' lack of tact and bluntness.

It also should be noted that N was starting to feel an aneurism coming up.

"My name is _**N**_. Not _**M**_," N curled up his fist. "It's short for Natural Harmonia Gropius, my full name." Despite the polite look on his face, one could see several veins on his forehead if he wasn't wearing his hat.

"Pfft!" Wes struggled to not spit his coffee, and N, for the first time ever, contemplated homicide. "You're name is Natural!? Bwahahaha! Oh…! Oh…! You're killing me!"

"I wish I was!" N muttered darkly under his breath.

"Oh ease up, M," N wasn't sure if he was joking on that name or not, but he was very close to just tackling this teenager outright. "It still sounds like a cool, fancy shmancy name."

"I have half a mind to sick my people onto you." N muttered before he recalled something. "Wait a sec, how did you guess my identity?"

'Poorly', which he should have added after he finished saying that.

"Oh, White Cap and Black Cap told me about you." Wes just thought it was somewhat weird how most people from regions seem to have this odd defining cloth that helps them stand out. For the people in Sinnoh it's scarves; for here in Unova it's hats; and from Hoenn, he calls each of them Headgear freaks—to which Anto and Summer tell him to never say that, especially to Ruby.

"White… Cap? Black… Cap?" N repeated unsurely, he did technically know trainers with those names but without the cap. Maybe it was just a coincidence…

"There was also Anto, who just told me you just seemed… stressed."

Anto, he did know that name! It was the name of the telepathic mute!

"Wait, 'stressed'?" N cried out before his mind could process. He was particularly drawn by how that strange boy saw him.

"Well yeah. I mean, I see what he means right now. You take things way too seriously. This is a place where you have fun, meet new people," 'Steal unsuspecting fools' money then get nagged on by Nerd to give them back.' Was only said in Wes' mind. "And here you are trying to force your ideas into others even now. I'm now theology expert, but I don't think there's any harm with sharing beliefs and calmly and maturely discussing different ideals. But hey, I'm not that good of a social person in the first place, so what do I know?"

Again?

N briefly wondered. That was the second time a completely different person told him to simply relax. He wasn't disputing or accepting his belief, but more focused on his own well being. Why did that give him such an unknown feeling he couldn't describe. Was it confusion? Maybe, but he really didn't know.

When the maid came over and put down his iced tea, Wes stood up being done with his drink.

"Thanks, here's a tip." He told her before waving goodbye casually to N.

The green haired boy wondered a bit. He was doing this all for the Pokémon. But was he really OK for this?

"Oh right! Umm sir?" The maid asked, causing the boy to look at her before taking his drink.

"I was told that you were going to be paying for your friend's coffee… and three grams of blue berry bagels."

"What!?"

"Uhhh… you're real name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, isn't it? The tanned boy that just left made it sound like you two were really close, and he said you would pay for his stuff because you were really nice and caring."

N may be preparing to save all the Pokémon in the world, but if there was something selfish he would allow, it would be to hunt down this Wes again and make him suffer.

* * *

[Summer, Platinum, White, Sapphire and Aster: Girl Talk]

There was an open air hot spring that recently opened up in Nimbasa City. Thanks to both White's mom and Platinum's uncanny ability to get almost anywhere due to her family fortune, a majority of the girls got together and were now bathing under the new soothing spa bath.

"Wow!" Aster cooed after Sapphire finished, leaning back on a warm rock as she did. "You sound like you went through a lot, Sapphire!"

The blue themed girl smiled. "Well I have to admit, you're not bad yourself Aster. It's nice to see not all girls are into _those_ types of things."

"But it's not bad to sit back and relax your muscles like this after a while huh?" Summer said as she stretched her arms.

"I hear ya. Man there is so much to do! I have other things to organize besides this…" White whined as just thinking about the work outside of this was making her stressed. "I also hope I don't have to deal with strange weather based titan Legendaries later on," White looked to Platinum. "Or even Time, Space, **and **Alternate Dimension Legendaries."

"I was informed that Sinnoh currently has the most Legendaries in the World," Platinum stated as she curled up her legs. "However, did not Summer have to deal with Legendaries from around the world?"

"Uhh, well they only caused trouble once or twice… But most of the time they really helped us in our journey."

"Hey, Summer," Aster said excitedly. "Could you show me one of these Guardian Signs I've heard about?"

"B-But I think they only work in the Oblivia Isles!" Summer cried out.

"Have you even tried them outside of Oblivia?" Platinum asked her.

"Ooh! I wanna see you summon legendaries!" White excitedly joined in.

Summer blushed at the attention everyone was giving her. "I-I can't do that here!"

"Boo. No fun." Aster pouted.

"Ugh, I don't want to deal with Legendaries, they're nothing but trouble." Sapphire whined. "I mean has anyone ever noticed that **every single bad guy** **organization** is always after a legendary?"

Some of the girls all thought about that and grimaced. Saphhire had to deal with three titans of weather in her home region; Aster and Summer both know about Almia's team Dim Sun, but only Summer was there seeing things going horribly awry in the Obliva region when Mewtwo was dragged in; and then there was Platinum where **all** of Sinnoh's legendaries were brought together and almost ended reality as they knew it.

She was right, legendaries almost existed just to cause them trouble.

Saphhire continued to complain. "Heck, I think these Team Plasma people are after Legendaries of this place too! Think of something original badguys!"

"Really?" White asked in slight annoyance. "I do not want to deal with a legendary if it's anything going to be like all of your stories."

"Well just hope that no one turns into a statue." Sapphire replied in an annoyed manner.

"Statue?" Summer, White, and Platinum asked in union.

"I don't want to talk about it." Sapphire exhaled.

Aster sighed, "Wow this is depressing, can we change the topic?" She then looked around her until her vision locked on to Summer with another smirk.

"W-What's with that look Aster!?" Summer blushed harder in her face. Being with Aster long enough, she started to realize she knew something bad was about to happen and it was going to cause her more grief.

Aster's smirk somehow intensified and she said out loud in a sultry voice so that everyone could hear her, "Why don't we talk about boys?"

At the mention of the opposite gender, everyone but Aster's cheeks rose in heat.

Probably because of being in the spa too long. Probably.

"Why would we be talking about them!?" Summer cried in half hysteria.

Aster put her hand near her mouth and giggled. "I mean, why not? There are a lot of hot guys here, like Ruby and Black for example."

Sapphire and White both tensed at hearing the tune of joy in Aster's voice.

"Then there's Diamond, who's so sleepy and slow—even I find him adorable, and Pearl who looks to have an endless personality."

Now Platinum found herself tensing for some unknown reason.

Then Aster elbowed Summer.

"Then there's little miss Go Getter that has a crush on a super hero back at the Ranger Union."

If it were any possible, Summer's face got redder. "Aster! Why do you keep calling Ben that?!"

"Saving an entire region? Granted they were mostly large isles, but that was still pretty impressive for just a handful of you rangers."

"We were just helping people. It's what we rangers do." The brown haired girl huffed.

"… But then again. I've been seeing you spend time with that Wes guy." The other ranger's eyes snapped open as she continued to listen to her friend. "Really expanding your horizons huh? The sweet, heroic childhood friend, or the tough bad boy with a hidden compassionate side? You are taking advantage of both sides of the coin ey?"

"What are you even saying!?"

The brown spiky haired girl giggled. "I admit, I didn't like the guy when I first saw him but the way you to argued almost sounded like an old, nagging married couple that have some fiery make out sessions!"

Before Summer could even open her mouth to deny such ideas even existing, Platinum coughed rather forcefully. "I-I do believe we should drop this topic."

"Oh come on, I'm really interested though!"

"No!" Summer and the other girls screamed at the other ranger rather vehemently.

"What is this passion I hear?" A rather mature, but flamboyant female voice cried out with a French like accent.

"Fatina?" Platinum asked as somehow, the Sinnoh Gymleader/master coordinator was in the hot spring with them on this lovely night without anyone's notice.

"Love is something that should not be kept in! Ahh, I remember my first love. He had such amazing muscles. A good man, but he had other duties…" She reminisced.

"We were not talking about lovers!" Sapphire adamantly explained.

"Did somebody say lovers?" A new voice belonging to Elesa asked as she too was somehow in the spring with all the other girls. "Oh that makes me nostalgic."

"Nostalgic? Ah believe the term is delusionary." Valarie said from the exact opposite side of the spa.

"Why is everyone here?!" Summer exhaustedly said but no one seemed to hear her.

"May ah remind yah that yah none of the males wanted to do anything with yah when yah accidentally crushed Lemo Irojh's legs?" Valarie teased with a hint of pride in her gray eyes.

Elesa's blue eyes glared over to her former rival and friend across from her, but then a smirk curled up into her lips as she place her hand near her mouth and said, "This coming from the girl who Judo threw a man almost twice her size just for touching your shoulder?"

"Ah was on guard when you brought me to that shameless bar in the middle of the night!" Valarie yelled.

Summer placed a palm on her face. She just wanted to relax, was that too much to ask?

Apparently Valarie and Elesa, despite being friends again, still argued like old rivals since they were still escalating in their current argument about who wooed the most men.

Then Valarie, in passionate rage, got her Sylveon out battle ready and started challenging Elesa to a fight to which the Unovian model seemed to accept.

It was the very last moment that all girls realized as Elesa threw her Poké Ball, she was throwing out an _electric_ Pokémon in a public _spa_.

If there was one plus side that actually came from the spa, it was that Summer's skin was feeling quite cleansed when she woke up in the hospital.

That was because in the hospital, she was placed recovering with the very women who put her in that state in the first place. It was at this point, while all of the girls started arguing over one another, Summer wondered if Anto's bad luck was actually contagious.

* * *

[Secret: A broken Past]

It was supposed to be a normal day.

You wake up, clean yourself up, walk out, and fill your routine life.

Who knew that against such impossible odds, something horrible would happen.

She remembered how the air around her felt suffocating, dark, empty, cold, and over all intimidating.

It all happened so quickly, like a blur. She remembered the screams, the wails, the falling bodies, and the last thing was a familiar purple Pokémon and her screaming pleads for it to be safe.

Then she woke up among the rubble, tried to dust herself off, and saw what exactly she lost in her life.

She searched for any survivor, but to her relief and horror, there were only a few. One of them wasn't going to make it. This same one was a Pokémon that helped her live in the first place.

She couldn't stand losing another. She couldn't take it.

"AZ… you senile old fool, how strange is it that of all the people still alive, it's you and I?"

She looked over to a cloaked figure, staring at the carnage in front of him as if it was normal. Then he turned to her, and the injured Pokémon in front of her.

He pointed a gloved hand towards the harmed Pokémon in her arms.

"I mean no ill will when I say this, but that Pokémon will die."

She held the Pokémon that helped her closer to her chest, refusing to believe that she would lose even this one.

"Yvetal's energy slowly drains a living being's life force and poisons it. Unless you can find Xerneas within a day, there almost no way to save that Pokémon… unless…"

"What?! No please! I don't want him to die!"

"… Girl, the option I'm offering is different from Xerneas."

"I don't care! Please… save him…"

"Hmm… will you accept the price?" He held out his hand towards the desperate girl. She couldn't help but see this just like in all those stories where a great and powerful evil comes to a man at their most weakest point.

Would she sacrifice her soul… for her beloved Pokémon…?

"Deal."

She took his hand.

* * *

**{Author's Notes}**

**A short little interlude chapter I wanted to write for fun and due to me planning some things. Don't worry! Next chapter has some major plot updates! And this arc will finally be reaching it's final stage so Anto can finally challenge the 4****th**** gym very soon and get on with this adventure!**

**I did have some more ideas about more one-shot like interludes in this chapter but I thought I'd save it for later since they were kind of hard to write.**

**Anywho. Hope you all enjoyed and next chapter for sure is where things start to get dicey?**

**Maybe?**

**Thanks for reading.**


	23. Ep 23: Ladies and Gentlemen

My ears are ringing…

I can't see.

What's going on?

"…!"

I feel heat singing my skin, I feel smoke clouding my lungs, my body aches all over and I can't feel my arm…

I don't think it's supposed to bend like that…

There was a woman there wearing an iron mask and pointing a gun at me.

"The orders were clear: Kill subject 5."

Her hand pulled the trigger and gunfire went off…

* * *

Episode 23: Festival Of Ruin (part 1)

[Torren Region]

Deep below in an underground lab, a man had just finished a recent call and sat on his desk in a contemplative mood.

One of his subordinates knocked on the door.

"Come in."

A woman with silver hair and yellow eyes came in. "Professor? I was called here?"

"That Shipment deal we made with Dimension Enterprise… was intercepted by the Abyssal Cultists. We lost many of our cargo, including the three prototype Delta Kanto Starters."

"Oh, you mean the ones that will have their DNA…"

"Yes."

* * *

[Nimbasa City]

"I've been going over the records of all the fights of Subject 5. His only has three Pokémon, but all three of them seem to be oddly powerful. The closest to normal would be the Liligant he has, but even then it's shiny."

She turned back to him, her face unchanging as she looked away from the giant computer screen with today's battle schedule was. "He only has three Pokémon? Hard to believe any trainer can win three badges with only three Pokémon."

"He's only been using those three so far in the official tournament. Unless he used different Pokémon outside the camera, it's just these three." The man put down the digital pad on a nearby desk before also looking up to the screen. "So, the next battle is a tag battle. Two different contestants get paired up and have to battle a different pair of battlers. The first pair to knock out two opposing Pokémon whether they belong to the same trainer or not."

"Yes. I've been watching subject 5's participation and he is surprisingly competent in Pokémon battling, something we must strip him off forthwith." She pressed something on the screen and then it showed four trainers currently fighting in a large arena. "Have the preparations been finished?"

"Yeah, they're done. Majus is on standby. And the man power needed has been supplied, no one thought twice since they thought the influx of more people were simply more tourists, which some were. We'll all go on your order."

She nodded, before pressing a button, and sending her voice to all agents scattered throughout Nimbasa City. "Good, we move now. Execute Operation: Trojan."

* * *

Mrs. Akio was working with other staff members in setting up the next performance by the Go Rock Quad.

"Hilda really trusts you to manage this, doesn't she?" A lower level co-worker asked the temporary manager in amazement.

"Well I do have experience managing people," She smiled before noticing an influx of people wearing security uniform. She blinked and wondered why there were so many officers holding their Poké Balls in their hands?

Her danger senses were spiking, but she walked over to who looked like the leader of the group now spreading out through the stage. "Excuse me, sir? Is something wrong?"

"There won't be if you cooperate."

He then threw his Poké Ball, followed by every other 'guard'.

* * *

"You know, why am I not surprised that I was paired up with you of all remaining 32 contestants? It was literally a 1/32 chance and we get paired up. Really? Your bad luck is so bad it's contagious. I'm starting to see why that weird Absol tried to kill you."

"_Oh ha ha Wes. You make it sound like I'm purposely doing all this. Did you know that I was this close to buying a Pontya Shoe for good luck?!_"

Wes briefly turned from the fight towards the boy. "Why didn't you?"

"_I don't want to walk around carrying a large necklace filled with those metal shoes! I'd look stupid!_"

"You already wear that stupid minion costume." Wes pointed out.

Anto answered without missing a beat. "_But at least I get paid for it._"

"Ah money, what some people would do for it. It's such a shame that people are slaves to the economic chains of capitalism and are forced to work their lives for pieces of text paper just to give it away for strange objects."

Anto raised his brow questioningly at Wes. "_I'm going to assume you're joking due to the fact you're a freaking thief! And you literally never paid for anything in your life! I know I kept track; you had either Tracey, Summer or I pay for your meals!_"

Summer's voice yelled out from the bleachers and reached the two boys. "Hey you two focus on the battle!" She screamed before sitting down with Aster, Tracey on her left, and the Sinnoh trio on her right.

Anto and Wes looked back but to be honest neither of them actually paid much attention to the fight since they trusted their Pokémon to make smart enough decisions…

And mostly because giving a command in this type of fight didn't feel right.

The duo of Wes and Anto was battling against Arran and Sebastian.

Specifically it was the pair of Takezo and Delta Wartortle versus Lucario and Stein.

The four of them were quite amazing as they continued to battle. The combat looked like something off a well choreographed fighting movie.

Takezo swung his blades in a flurry of quick strikes as it was empowered by Assurance energy. However, Lucario expertly blocked each strike with her Bone Rush staff before spinning her body and swinging it right at the Patrat.

* * *

Meanwhile, as the fight between the four continued, Hilda was watching the battle from her own office.

"My daughter really knows how to pick them. Ahh reminds me of how her father and I met…" Hilda sighed with nostalgia in her mind. She heard a buzzer go off.

"Hilda, one of the construction worker representatives are here." One of her friends and coworker spoke through the intercom.

The president was slightly confused as to why they wanted to meet her now of all times.

Still, she paged an answer to her. "Alright let them in."

The doors opened and a woman wearing a suit with long blonde hair and vividly strong red eyes walked in very formal attire.

"Are you're the president of the BW company, President Hilda?"

There was a kind formality to her voice and a kind smile, but Hilda's senses felt something wrong, very wrong.

Hilda still smiled back. "Yes, and where is Daniel, the usual head representative that I've worked with for the past month in regards to the closing and construction of the battlefield and cameras?"

"He was tied up at the moment," The woman fixed her glasses. "As you will be."

Hilda's eyes widened as she saw the woman's shadow split into three then blacked out as they launched themselves at her.

* * *

The fight raged on between the four neither of them seemed ready to fall despite the damage they all inflicted hard on each other.

"These guys just don't want to give up!" Sebastian exclaimed as he kept his eye on Lucario fighting with Wartortle and avoiding blows left and right. Takezo and Stein were clashing blades back and forth, Stein brought one of his sword arms down flowing that by spinning around and doing a large swipe with his other arm. Takezo side stepped the first vertical strike before flipping over the wide slash. Mid air, he stabbed one of his wooden blades forward towards the face of Stein. However, the dark and steel type bent his head backward and avoided the blow.

Vacuum Waves and Aura Spheres flew left and right, all trying to hit their target. Wartotle was surprisingly mobile as he retreated into his own shell and spun it as he moved forward. He even jumped with it still in motion, popped up all his limbs and launched more continuous rapid fire Vacuum Waves towards Lucario. Lucario threaded on the battleground with nimble grace, avoiding the fighting type blows as expertly but not as unorthodox as Wartortle.

The battle closed in, fists, blades flying as the two pairs re grouped with their teammates. They all looked tired, but were smiling excitedly from the fight. But this long battle had taken its hold and they were all tired, which mean that this next clash would determine the—

The lights died out instantly.

Everyone froze, it looked as if the entire area had under gone a black out.

It was then the light came back on, most of the other fighting in the arenas beyond also stopped fighting from the sudden black out.

The four Pokémon in Anto's field were all frozen, each very close to hitting the other with any attack, mere inches from their face before withdrawing back.

"The XTranscivers aren't working." Sebastian started as he looked at the wristwatch.

Arran tapped his glass but it looked not to be working.

"Summer," The girl looked over to Aster beside her. "I just checked my cell, the signal's dead." Her fellow Ranger said.

"Something's not right." Tracey said worryingly.

Pearl's attention was caught as something in the giant monitor on the ceiling popped up with an image of a woman wearing a Team Plasma uniform.

However, as she lifted up her hood, her face was covered by a metal mask that resembled an Entei. However, there was a certain bloody, glowing light behind her eyes, intimidating almost everyone that saw her face.

"Nimbasa City, you are under Martial Law by Team Plasma." The way the woman spoke was commanding, as if she wasn't just saying it, but rather stating that it was the truth, and to oppose her would only invite consequences most dire.

"First thing is first, we are very aware of the gym leaders and Champions currently staying and enjoying the festivities." Smaller screens popped up, showing Alder and Wallace starring into a direction away before looking into the direction of the camera pointing to them. Other screens showed Valarie and Elesa with Fatina in a clothes shop. The third screen showed that the Elite four of Unova, Marshal, was also currently holding a bag of baked goods, as if he was soon going of enjoy them before this.

Arran's eyes widened before looking up. "They hacked the Camera Bots!" He yelled out, making everyone look up at the floating camera orbs surrounding everyone. Now people were uneasy around the objects.

The woman impassionately continued. "The Elite Four is also implied along with this message. You are given only two minutes to vacate the city. I suggest you use your Pokémon to leave forthwith. And if you even think about defying this order…" The camera zoomed out of the dark room, showing a bigger picture—

"MOM!?" A loud shriek echoed into the room, where everyone looked over to a horrified White hugging herself as on the screen appeared Hilda, gagged and bounded to a chair.

To her, and everyone's else horror, the masked Plasma Grunt pulled out a pistol and pointed the barrel at her.

"Your time starts now. Leave." She wasted no words, only weaving confusion and fear throughout the city.

A timer appeared on screen, with the Gym Leaders, Champions, and Elite Four still staring in horror and anger at their camera.

The woman looked disappointed five seconds in because the people in the video were not moving, so did something unthinkable.

She shot Hilda.

In the foot.

"MOOOOMMMM!" White shrieked again, more agony in her voice as she saw her mom trashing in pain, tears in her eyes and her gag preventing her screams from fully coming out. She Then ran out of the area with Black and his Pokémon shortly chasing after her.

"_White!_" Anto yelled as he ran after her and Black. Takezo, followed his trainer.

"This can't be good." Wes said as then he and Wartortle followed right after the two. Arran and Sebastian shortly followed after with Lucario and Stein quickly behind.

Then the rest of their friends, the Sinnoh Trio, Aster, Jamie, Summer, and Tracey, stood up from the stands after the trainers.

When they went outside, the face of the woman was on every screen in NImbasa City.

The video's voice became louder as Anto heard her voice coming from all directions. "I am not repeating myself. Leave. Now. Every ten seconds that pass will be another shot, and I guarantee the next one won't be a flesh wound. Eight, Seven, Six…"

With absolute horror, the video screens showed Valarie, frustration and confusion and defeat on her face, get her Mr. Mime and seemingly command him to teleport the two other Gym leaders out with her. Marsshal gritted his teeth and crushed his bag of goods before running out with surprising human agility.

Lastly, the two Champions looked at each other before Wallace stood up, summoned some of his own part psychic Pokémon and teleported them both out.

"Pres, stop!" Black finally caught up, catching her and making her stop in front of the now empty streets that were once filled with people.

After seeing the shot on live television, many people had fled in doors, it was so hard for Black to move past the crowd of screaming people, and he honestly thought he would have been killed if he fell into the floor for just going in the opposite direction, but it didn't happen.

"But my mom!" White yelled almost hysterically back at him, tears in her eyes and desperation written all over her face.

"Pres, listen! Do you even know where they are holding her!?"

"They have to be at the Radio Tower, it's the only place that can broadcast and control all the camera bots in Nimbasa City." White weakly explained.

Anto and the others caught up with the two.

Black grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly. "Team Plasma would have had that place guarded!"

"Speak of the devil..." Arran noted as a group of Team Plasma Grunts with N and Rood walking towards them in a hurry.

"You bastards have stooped to a whole new low!" Aster hissed with anger.

"That is not us! Whoever they are they aren't team Plasma!" Some grunts yelled back in defense.

"Wait, what?" Tracey, and everyone else seemed shocked at that proclamation.

N stepped forward. "For whatever it's worth. This isn't us. A large shipment of our uniform was stolen earlier this week. I assure you, the real Team Plasma wants nothing more than to expose these imposters for besmirching our name!" The usually stoic N was bridle with Rage, so much in fact that Even Black, who was about to say they were lying, was silenced at the raw emotion N was giving off.

"Uhh Guys?" Diamond said out loud making both groups look at him. The usually simple boy pointed up. "There are a lot of Camera Bots surrounding us."

True enough, they all finally noticed a large group of Camera Bots surrounding them in the sky with all of their lenses focusing on them from many different angles.

Anto looked up to one of the major screens and saw the video of the Fake Plasma Woman beside a new video… that showed a camera zooming on him.

"Nimbasa City. I will make this quick, because I detest 'beating around the bush'. Contestant # 13, Anto will make his way to Mayor's Office down Pidove Street, alone and without his Pokémon."

"What?!" Tracey said before all eyes on the boy in question.

* * *

[Meanwhile]

Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Lissa were at the Small Court watching in horror.

"Anto?! Wait, what does Team Plasma want with him?" Emerald cried.

"I don't think they're Team Plasma." Lissia commented briefly.

"There's no way I'm just gonna stand here and let them do this!" Sapphire cried out before making a dash out the door.

[Elsewhere.]

"_What?_" Anto wondered as he stared at the camera that was directly facing him. All of Nimbasa City, including himself, saw the look of confusion on his face.

The woman spoke again. "The Timer is still continuing. If Contestant # 13 Anto does not comply and head to NImbasa City Hall within the allotted time, or is not making his way towards us," A new screen popped in front of all screens, showing inside the Nimbasa City Hall surrounded by fake Team Plasma members pointing their Pokémon at a large staff of workers huddled together in a large hearing room.

"Then it will not only be The President of CEO who will suffer your actions."

"Those monsters…" N gritted in rage.

Everyone else looked to be in shock, or were just as angry at the fact they all couldn't move without killing innocents.

The amnesiac was afraid. Who wanted him? Why put an entire city in jeopardy? For him? What… wait… Dimension Enterprise? Was it them behind all of this? Why did they need him so much?

Anto saw the woman raise her gun, so he quickly dropped his Poké Balls to the floor before making his way out.

He didn't care much about that now. If he hesitated any more people would get hurt on his account.

… At that, a small thought planted itself into his head.

**This is all your fault**.

Wes and Sebastian both grabbed different sides of Anto's shoulders as the boy made his way from them.

"Whoa! Where the heck do you think you're going!?" Wes screamed angrily.

Meanwhile, Takezo went closer to the Poké Balls his partner was dropped. Flow was still out, and he was getting bits of the whole situation from what everyone else was saying and from the visuals of the screen.

Takezo saw something in his partner. Fear... and doubt. He lost one friend, he wasn't going to lose another.

He took a quick look at the cameras… and noticed how all of them were focused on Anto…

"You're not actually going to listen to her, are you?!" Aster yelled to him before grabbing him by the sleeves and pulling him up.

"Aster, put him down!" Summer cried out.

Another shot went off.

Everyone looked to the screen, especially poor White, who feared the worst. Thank Arceus, the woman had only shot the roof.

"I'm only going to say this one more time!" The woman in the video declared angrily. "Let Anto go, or I will give the order to execute all hostages without mercy."

"Mom…" White gasped again as she looked to the screen.

Anto was let go before he made his way away from everyone else, quickly.

Black gritted his teeth, anger seething from his lips. "You won't get away with this!"

There was no sign of her even showing any reaction to what looked to be an empty threat to her. "If any of you make a move, I will kill the hostages."

"Where are the police in this?!" Pearl cried out in frustration, holding his head, trying to see something about this situation.

"It's more than likely these impostors subdued them, if they have this much choke hold over the city." N stated as he looked around all the cameras surrounding them.

[Meanwhile…]

Elesa was beyond peeved being teleported and almost forced out of her own town by no good thugs. What had happened to the security!?

"Madame Elesa, we need to calm down."

"How could this have happened?! The security was everywhere!"

"Shush!" Valarie silenced as she looked around for more Cameras. She wasn't as stupid to let the brutes have their way. She had recalled after the first battle, the old residential district was pretty beaten down and still had left over jungle vines from Anto and Emerald's battle. So instead of teleporting them out of town, she had her Mr. Mime teleport them right into the middle of the previous battlefield, where the vines were thick enough to hide their view from the cameras patrolling the skies.

She silently watched one of the cameras glance in their direction, a house covered by the vines of Sceptile, before moving away.

Fatina's Gengar popped up from the shadows, returning from his own patrol and recon, and quickly pointed to the door.

"The door?" Fatina spoke before she and the two other female Gym leaders readied their selves at what was behind the wooden frame.

Knocking on the door came, not too loud but enough to be heard by the three. "Hello? Are there any beautiful ladies in there?"

The voice was familiar, as well as that easy going and joking tone. Fatina opened the door to see Alder, Marshal, and Wallace standing on the door frame.

"Well what do you know? I was right after all." Alder grinned widely. "Great minds think alike after all."

"This attack seems frustratingly coordinated." Marshal seriously noted. "But we've been tracking Team Plasma's movements for a while, this isn't their MO nor is this something they would do."

"I've seen the full extent of what these 'Teams' usually do." Wallace grimaced. "Are you sure they wouldn't resort to this?"

Valarie then recalled a rather glaring fact. "Halt. They kicked us out, yes. But what was their purpose for all this?"

Fatina looked to one of the shopping bags she was carrying before Valarie whisked them away. In it, she took out one of the new Tablet devices.

"Here, let me see that." Elsea offered. "It should come with a function to connect to the Radio Station…" She said as she put it on and then made the screen open up a video.

Everyone crowded around her to see what new demands the madwoman was making.

They all became surprised when the woman demanded that Anto, that boy they had met along with Black was forced into meeting with them.

"That mute boy has a connection with Team Plasma?" Marshal wondered. "They have this city in the palm of their hands and all they're demanding is one boy? That shouldn't be right. If this was really Team Plasma they would have demanded something strange like the liberation of all Pokémon."

Valarie gritted as she saw the video of everyone trying to stop Anto from going, only to be forced to go when it was revealed they had even more hostages.

"They're going to get away with him!" She hissed. She was about to call out her Mr. Mime, but Wallace put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ms. Valarie, calm down. I know what you were thinking. And you are right."

The Gym leader from Kalos blinked suddenly at the odd saying. "What?"

The current Hoenn Champion smiled.

* * *

"WHAT!?"

The woman on screen screamed out loud when suddenly, the three Gym Leaders, One Elite Four, and two Champions appeared on screen with the survivors, with all of their Pokémon ready.

Alder acted first, pointing to the camera facing them, and having his Accelagor destroy it quickly.

For once, the calmness in the Woman on screen finally seemed to be fading as she looked more panicked.

"It's the Champs! They still stayed!" Black cried out in joy.

Just then, all surrounding Camera bots were hit by trails of fire, Bullet Seeds, and water and then immediately destroyed.

Everyone looked over to the side, seeing the trio of Hoenn coming up to them with their Hoenn starters out and accompanied shortly with Lissia.

"Guys!" Tracey exclaimed.

"Where did Anto go?" Emerald cried as he and his Sceptile looked around.

Jamie stepped out frantically, pointing in the direction where Anto ran off. "He probably went to the town hall! We have to go get him!"

"But what about my mom!?" White cried out again.

"Those imposters will pay for besmirching our name like this!" N turned to his followers. "We will make them pay for all of this tenfold!"

Then the Team Plasma grunts beside him cheered readily.

"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!"

That silenced everyone as they all looked to see Summer uncommonly furious. "Listen up!" She barked The Fake Team Plasma is still holding the main communications center of Nimbasa City, but there are still hostages that the League members are trying to free!" She pointed to N and his large group. "You! You have the most man power out of all of us! Spread out your group to help the league in saving the hostages! Whoever wants to join them, can, but the rest of us will storm the radio center and save White's mom!"

A team Plasma grunt stood up. "What makes you think you can order us—" But he was interrupted by N.

"She's right. People are more important first. Rood, take half of the team with you. If the police are not caught up, ask them to come and help us, if they are captured by the enemy, show them what happens when one crosses with us."

Rood bowed. "Your will be done, my king." He said without the bit of doubt or wavering loyalty.

"The rest of us, we will help the league save and evacuate the prisoners." N stated.

"I'm coming with you! Anto's making his way there!" Wes stated.

"I'm coming too!" Jamie followed after Wes before turning back. "So whose going to save White's mom and whose coming with us?"

The ones who chose to help save White's mom and take back the radio tower of Nimbasa City where: Sapphire, Ruby, Lissia, Sebastian, Aster, Summer, Tracey, Pearl, Platinum, and Diamond.

Following Wes, Jamie, and N with his some of his followers were Emerald and Arran.

"Alright, we have to move or else!" Summer finished before the two teams made their way.

But briefly, she and Wes stayed behind.

"Not bad, Summer." Wes complimented quickly.

"Just be safe," She said with concern. Then she smiled. "I can't treat prisoners and criminals poorly under arrest."

Wes smirked. "Good luck to you too." He said before walking after the others.

Summer's cocky smile fell and looked to Flow. "I hope I'm doing the right thing…"

The little pink Delta looked around her before asking innocently, "**Summer? Where's Takezo?"**

* * *

Inquisitor did not like what was going on. She cut the feed and turned to her ear piece. "Majus, Warden. We've lost most of our hostages. Resort to Plan B."

"Well I have to deal with two champions." Warden complained from his line. "This is going to suck."

"I be ready on this end," Majus assured from his station. "We be receiving word we just attacked by teams of trainers. But I be holding them all off long enough for the plan to work."

Inquisitor nodded solemnly. "While the mission is the abduction Subject 5, do not hesitate to retreat if anyone of our men are severly injured, your health fare is priority… please be careful."

"Aww look at that, she does care." Warden said. "Thanks, we but we know what's at stake if we let Subject 5 out in the real world, here n Unova of all places."

Majus agreed. "I agree Sister Inquisitor. We be failing here, we be failing the world. We be heroes after all."

"You make it sounds so easy. We aren't doing heroic things are we?" Inquisitor spoke with almost doubt in her voice. "I may have screwed up big time."

"Well, if everyone else lives peacefully, I'm fine with it. Remember, we can't let them catch Subject 5."

With new confidence, Inquisitor inhaled. "Thank you… be safe, all of you."

"… You too Katie." Warden said genuinely before he and Majus hung up.

She had new confidence, the world may hate her, people may spit when they see her image, but she still had family worth protecting and those that would have her back, even if her hands would be stained in blood.

"Come on Subject 5, hurry before you end the world…"

She stared outside, where a young teenage boy had just entered her sight.

* * *

**{Author Notes…?}**

**Welcome one and all to the Festival of Ruin!**

**Believe half of what you see, and ALL of what you hear!**

**Heroes shall rise then bleed like all mortals.**

**Tactics shall turn and twist like knives stabbed into your flesh.**

**Bodies will drop, but no one knows if they shall rise once more.**

**Power unleashed! Those caught in the titanic battle will only huddle in fear and pray not to be caught within the gales!**

**And a boy, at the center of the storm… is he truly the cause of this all?**

**Or is there something far darker hidden within the light of peace?**

**But one thing is certain…**

**This battle, is but the taste of the madness to come!**

**So welcome one and all to the Festival of Ruin!**

**Won't you come and stay a while?**


	24. Ep 24: I Present To You

"_You mortals and your 'Science'._

_How you amuse me so with all your fancy names and extensively detailed expositions…_

_So why is it, with all your fancy words, funny shaped charts, and detailed explanations…_

_That you cannot cure stupidity?"_

* * *

[?]

Reality blurred with fantasy, she saw the twisted smile of the horrible creature turn into someone she trusted with her life.

"You will always be a failure. Just give up already."

She knew it wasn't him, it wasn't his voice, his usual brave and confident voice.

That didn't stop the tears from coming nor the pain stabbing through her heart.

* * *

[?]

Episode 24: Festival of Ruin Part 2

The air tasted sour, bitter, just breathing it made her lungs lurch in disgust.

The girl and the stranger made their way past the old, forgotten cemetery in the dead of night. However, the girl was starting to regret her decision, the more so when she gulped at the sight of an ancient and ruined church.

She entered through the door and saw the ruined pillars, the tears on the ceiling, the broken and dust pews or benches. And the dim, grime filled windows that were obviously once stained with beautiful colors that light up under the sun, but were now faded and dull and showed only added into the darkness of the area.

Then she saw them, standing across broken archways and pillars, looking down on her like a small Rattata. They were all covered in mysterious cloaks, all radiating with something inhuman…

"_And who…_" A voice called out—if one could call it a voice. The base sound of it sounded human, but the voice was raspy, yet it sounded like it penetrated one's ears and chilled the mind.

"_Have you brought before us…?_" It came from the one in front of them, the one sitting on the broken tabernacle as if it was some kind of king's throne. He looked to be relaxing on top of it, as if he believed himself to be far above others.

She didn't know she was trembling at his mere image.

The person who brought her in, strode forward, uncaring of the inhuman voice and the prying three other pairs of what she thought were human eyes staring hard at her, and spoke out. "She shall be my vassal, and I promised her and her partners The Gift."

"Gift!?"

Screeched one of the smaller hooded figures standing on top of a cracked archway on the girl's left. The shriek of the voice made it sound like she was another girl around her age, but there was anger prevailing within her rants. "You call this a gift!? It's a curse!"

"A curse that reveals the truth about this world."

Another, more monotone voice spoke out, from a different hooded figure. His voice sounded without passion in it.

But then, what he had said had caused the girl to say something in turn.

"Truth?"

She clasped her mouth with her hands.

The four of them turned to her at her question. She realized that she may have said something taboo amongst these four.

The one sitting on the false throne stood up. And asked her simply,

"_Tell me, Girl, which false god do you believe in?_"

* * *

[Present Time]

The teams all made their way towards their two destinations, tensions ran high and temporary alliances had been made.

Wes and N were making their way towards the town hall. It was the place where all hostages were in currently and where Anto was told to go to.

However, their destination already had valiant souls trying their best to handle the situation.

"Of all the rotten luck; three Gym leaders, one Elite Four, and two Champions…" The man behind a Raikou metal mask drawled as he rubbed the back of his Team Plasma Hood.

"Code: Warden!" The other fake team members said as they retreated backward, some of their Pokémon being injured.

"So you must be one of the higher ups." Alder stated almost monotonously.

"And one of the Champions is pissed at me… brilliant." Warden looked over to his Medicham who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well that's one way to put it. But how about putting it in this perspective, you ruined a peaceful, gathering event and twisted it into scaring thousands, probably millions of people with the hostage situation, and further traumatizing more by shooting one of those hostages right in front of my face." His fists clenched and the usual calm smile was replaced with a solemn frown. "You are going to pay for your crimes."

There was shiver going up all the fake Team Plasma Members as they heard the usually gentle and laid-back Champion turn vicious.

"Yeah yeah."

Warden nonchalantly shrugged it the not-so subtle threat off as five more of his Pokémon came out, a Pinsir, a Blaziken, an Ampharos, a Slowbro, and a Sableye. However, all of them were wearing a pendant except for the Medicham which was wearing a turban with his gem in the turban.

"Those gems!" Valarie cried out as she and all her Fairy Pokémon looked surprised.

Warden moved his sleeve and armed his gauntlet.

"Everyone, get ready." He simply said.

Then his gauntlet beeped to life.

"_Six Mega Stones Detected. Activate Evolution?_"

"Yes." Warden raised his gauntlet above his head.

"_Priming… launching all six Key Waves…_"

"Do not let him activate that machine!" Valarie cried out before six rainbow pulses exploded out from Warden's gauntlet, making six bright lights shine like a miniature sun.

* * *

N, and his group stopped as they saw something akin to rainbows shooting out from the Town City Hall. They all had to cover their eyes from the flash bang before it quickly died down.

Suddenly, as soon as the lights died down, the building started getting destroyed from the inside as more shrieks and screams were heard. Some Pokémon, some human.

"Why is it when we're supposed to have the advantage, like have two champions, three gymleaders, and an Elite Four member, life screws you over and turns the tables so easily?" Jamie complained as he thought that maybe going with Team Plasma and working with more than several elite League members, they would have had a chance to beat a bunch of fake posers.

But with the obvious look from the building… not likely.

"Well we're not changing anything standing here." Wes told them before heading first towards the others.

* * *

The outside Parking lot of the Nimbasa City Radio tower was turned into a battlefield as Pokémon attacks and charred metal went flying everywhere.

"Move out of the way!" One false Team Plasma members shouted as a group of them ducked away from a Leaf Tornado from an angry White.

"OK, she looks pissed." Ruby noted with his Swampert and Gardevoir out.

To be honest this all could have been much worse, they weren't losing which was good, and there were a lot of skilled and talented Trainers fighting to take back the Radio Tower. But the thing was that their enemies were very competent. In a one on one they must have realized that the trainers storming them all had better Pokémon and had enough experience to take on the best of them.

However, the enemies were absolutely not slouches. They were very coordinated, like a well oiled machine. They all paired up with a partner that had a Teleport move while some of the others hunkered back. What they pulled off were something akin to guerilla tactics. They would teleport to one side of their enemy, while the other used his non-dark Pokémon to attack. Sometimes they would succeed or sometimes they would be parried by their enemy's ally, either way, after the attempt they would back off and the teleporter would get them out of the way.

While this was going on, the grunts at the back bombarded their opponents with heavy artillery with many long ranged attacks, making it almost impossible for this team to reach the Radio Station.

"For a bunch of fakers, these guys are insanely annoying!" Sebastian cried out before he commanded his Leafeon to parry a Machoke before the fighting type was teleported out by a Kirlia. That left Lucario open to be drenched by a far Brine attack.

"Ugh, we can't fight like this!" Sapphire complained. "Just push through their barricade!" She pointed at the sealed doors a bunch of fakers were protecting.

Everyone agreed, and soon tried to make their way towards the main doors despite all the heavy fire.

However, Aster looked up to the sky and saw something falling from the tower.

"Everyone back!" She yelled by pointing to something massive going to fall right on top of them.

The group split up from the thing that fell with a deafening crash and earth shaking landing. As the dust settled down, a giant figure's shadow loomed inside the dust cloud.

"Hail and welcome, bro'thas and sistas!" The voice called out as the fog died down, revealing a man sitting on top of a fierce looking and shiny Aggron's shoulder. He stood out from all the imposters with an iron mask that looked similar to Suicune's face.

"Where's my mom, you monster!?" White yelled out angrily.

"Mom?" Majus scratched his head and jumped off his Aggron's shoulder. A Beedrill flew beside down beside him and a Banette came out of the shadow of the Aggron. Following that, a Gengar materialized on Majus's opposite side of the beedrill, while a Gallade teleported in front of him, ready to defend his master.

A smile crossed his lips as out came a Gengar from thin air then a Pidgeot flew down and a Gallade teleported instantly beside him.

"Oh. I think you be mis understandin something." He said as he subtly pressed buttons on his gauntlet.

* * *

Wes and N barged through the door where the League members and their partners all looked battered up and tired.

The place looked tattered and destroyed, with several walls already beaten, blasted, and busted. Most of the league members were there except Fatina, who was in the far corner standing between the hostages and some of the fake Plasma members.

"Great, more of you." Warden said.

"Reinforcements?!" Marshal looked surprised as he looked at N and the people behind him.

"We're actually here to help you guys." Arran said as he and several of his Pokémon prepared themselves in front of the six Megas and the army behind them.

"And now the real Team Plasma is here. Great—just fantastic." Warden complained as he put a plam to rub the bridge of his nose.

Wes stepped forward. "If it's too much for yah, yah could just surrender and give us back Anto and the hostages."

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Warden suddenly burst into laughter, making everyone stare at him strangely.

"Oh! Oh! I needed that laugh." Warden gasped as he wiped his eyes.

Wes opened his mouth to ask—

* * *

"What do you mean misunderstand something?" Summer demanded Majus as his Pokémon drew closer to him.

He pointed to White.

"See that girl's mother? She ain't here."

* * *

"Then where is he?" Wes asked, his Pokémon all wary as both sides faced down each other. He then asked,

* * *

"Is she with the other Hostages in the Town Hall? Did you trap her with Anto?" Summer stared down Majus.

* * *

"Ha ha. No to the kid and President being in the Radio Tower," Warden smugly smiled. "But you were right in guessing those two important figures are in the same place."

* * *

"That doesn't make any sense!" Tracey stepped forward towards Summer with his Scizor close behind him.

"You told him to go to the Town Hall! We were all there… Unless…"

Then realization spread across his face.

* * *

"It was the XTransceivers, wasn't it!?" Emerald shouted as he pointed to the watch on their wrists. "You took control of the Camera Bots, didn't you? It wasn't too hard to control those too! You must have activated Anto's and made him change course while every thought he was going in one direction!" He pointed accusingly at a now scowling Warden.

* * *

Majus smiled deflated.

"I be guessin bein with Professor Oak long enough is bound to give ya some smarts…" He told Tracey.

* * *

But then Warden's smile returned just as quickly. "So Watson and Sherlock, where's Waldo?"

Everyone grew silent at that.

"Are you saying that all of this!?" Marshal pointed over to the other hostages. "Was just a distraction!?"

Warden didn't move. "I'll let you decide that one for yourself. Now, shall we continue this battle?"

His Mega Pokémon itched back into fighting stances.

* * *

[Where he was...]

Anto read the instructions on his re opened XTransciver. The moment he got out of sight of his friends, the watch came to life and commanded him to take a different direction. He would have ignored it, if it weren't for the fact the woman came up and silently ordered him to follow the new location.

To his surprise, Anto found out he was heading towards the amusement park of Nimbasa City.

He looked up to the Ferris Wheel, then he saw her, The Woman standing on top of one of the carts with a gun in her hand. But inside the cart were two people: Mrs. Akio and Hilda.

Anto was surprised at that, especially when Mrs. Akio looked to the boy below with worry. She looked to say something, but for some reason, no words came out of the cart.

Inquisitor jumped off the top of the Ferris Wheel. From behind one of the buildings, a speedy figure came in and swept her off the air. Anto shielded his eyes as the wind came straight towards his face, but as it died down, he noticed a fierce looking Flygon staring him down with the scary woman standing right beside the dragon.

The woman reached out for Anto.

"_Wait!_" Anto mentally screamed, surprising the woman and making her flinch. "_What do you want from me!?_"

Inquisitor stared hard at Anto. "No… you already reached telepathy levels!?" Her Flygon tensed and she pointed her pistol towards the boy. "That would have only manifested after 50 years!"

Anto raised his hands and stepped back, only to trip and fall on his back.

From the top of the Ferris Wheel, Mrs. Akio slammed on the windows desperately as she felt as if she just saw her son about to get shot.

Flygon tensed, before coming in front of Inquisitor and shielding her from an electrical blast.

While that happened, Anto was surprised to see Sentinel appear right beside him and whisk him away from the spot with Phantom Force.

"No!" Inquisitor cried out as Subject 5 vanished. She quickly took out a remote and the gates to the Amusement park closed and locked themselves. Actually, gates shot up all throughout the amusement park and started glowing in activation.

Sentinel and Anto popped out of the attack and ended up near the gym entrance.

Anto looked up, and was surprised once more to see Takezo, Ohko, and Lily as well as Sentinel all together here.

"_Guys!? H-How did you get here? How did you find me?_"

Lily motioned to Takezo before taking out her Poké Ball and handing it back to Anto. "**Takezo helped us out and filled us in something was happening and you had to leave us to save another person.**"

"**As soon as we heard that, we chased after you while everybody was surrounded by floating circles. No way we were leaving ya alone boss.**" Ohko tossed his Great Ball back to Anto for the boy to catch.

The young boy was just shocked at how his Pokémon would be willing to risk their lives for him. "_… You guys… really went through all that for me? Why?_"

"**You meant what you said about friends being too stupid to know what being abandoned meant.**"

Sentinel worded weirdly before putting his Dusk Ball in Anto's hands along with the other two.

"**I… want to live by those words. And I don't want you to leave us.**"

For the first time, Anto felt Sentinel's ghost fire… turn warm for a second.

"There you are!"

Takezo and all the others jump in front of Anto as they all saw Inquisitor turn the corner with her own batch of Pokémon.

The high agent stared observantly at Sentinel.

"A Delta Charmeleon? Those appear in the Torren Region, don't they?"

Anto stared cautiously at the woman as more Pokémon came out besides the Flygon such as a Stunfisk, Meganium, Milotic, Cacturne, and Eevee.

She fixed her mask and started typing something in her gauntlet.

"Did you know that the Torren Region is a very unique Region? Not only are they one of the very few regions in the world with Delta Pokémon, but… they also have their own signature Mega Evolutions that no other Pokémon can do."

Anto paled at where his mind was going with this. He looked to all of her six Pokémon, he thought those Pokémon didn't have a mega evolution!

"Torren Region Pokémon have their own separate branch of Mega Evolutions, only Pokémon from that Region can Mega Evolve differently. For example, if you bring a specific Mega Stone—say Flygonite—and use it on a Flygon that isn't from the Torren Region, it won't work. Though it's a good thing my all of my partners are from the Torren Region…"

Anto stood up, gulping as he saw all six Pokémon bring up a Mega Stone in their person.

"_Guys… get ready for the fight of your life!_" Anto told his four Pokémon then stood up as he said it.

Then all six of the Pokémon were bathed in a rainbow light.

All Pokémon were radically different from what he expected them to be.

As the light died down, the boy paled at the sight of all six opposing Pokémon evolving to an even further state of power.

The one that stood out the most was Mega Flygon. Towering even taller than before, the massive dragon type now truly looked like a real and fierce dragon along the likes of Salamance and Hydreigon. It now had four wings and now looked similar to a much more powerful dragon like Yanma. It's tail end became sharper while it's length was increased and now had three rings attached to it. His neck was extended and the rest of his body grew more bug like for some reason. It was if it was now a Dragon bug type rather than the usual ground and dragon. Still, it's ruby piercing eyes at it stared at all of them made his enemies shiver.

And that was only one of five other horrible monstrosities!

Mega Stunfisk, the usual normal and funny looking Pokémon, was no longer retaining almost any semblance of its previous evolution. It was almost like a different Pokémon entirely with it now having eerie yellow claws, spikes protruding out of his body, and a sinister face where that simple oblivious look had once been. Electricity cackled all over its body, making all the normal lights in the immediate vicinity flicker then eventually burst at the overwhelming power at its mere presence.

Mega Milotic was a beautiful and awe filled sight. If one thought Milotic was beautiful before, it's mega Evolution in the Torren Region dwarfed all normal ones. The scales of the Milotic were no longer the usual red and blue, but now a beautiful array of rainbow scales that fanned into a gorgeous tail of bright neon colors with white. Despite its stunning beauty with every small movement, the light around the Pokémon was bright enough to seemingly hurt Sentinel by just looking at the creature.

If Mega Molitic was beautiful, Mega Cacturne was horrific. Just like Mega Stunfisk, the Pokémon became far scarier than he was previously. For one, his entire color tone became much darker than usual, then all of its needles grew and turned charcoal black. It's hat also turned black and seemingly became pointier.

Mega Meganium was another towering titan among the enemy team, the flower or petals that once surrounded her changed into a vivid, pink orchid. Her antennas now had these ends that you would normally see on an orchid. Her body looked more jungle like with wild leaves growing out, much like the more primal wilds had grown across her body.

Last, but in no way least was the Mega Eevee. The least noticeable fact about Mega Eevee was that it's color scheme was swapped. All of the fur area that should have been chocolaty brown was now crème white, and the areas that were white were now brown. It was also slight more fluffy looking with its fur becoming more ruffled out and puffy. But the staggering thing about Mega Eevee were the floating, different colored stones circling around the small creature that made one think about a lesser version of the mighty Arceus, but none the less powerful in its own right.

**{Author Notes: Alright. Six fan-made mega evolutions are going to be a drawl on to describe and write. This is already long enough with the fighting all over Nimbasa City, so I'm going to have to cut down on these, but the good news is that there is a site that has all six of the fan made mega evolution pictures in one place. I STRONGLY suggest looking it up if you want an idea of the enemy six mega evolutions and keep it in your tabs since I plan to use more of them.**

**Here's the site, just remove the '()' and remove the spaces:  
**(http) : / / (wiki) . p –insurgence Mega _ Evolution # Unofficial **  
They will be around the bottom or mid section of the page and shouldn't be too hard to find.}**

They all tensed at the sight of Six powerful opponents all bursting with power and surrounding them.

Not only were they outnumbered, but they were out classed.

"**They…**" Takezo actually seemed to gulp as he gripped his blade tighter. "**They all have the same presence as the Absol that attacked us…**"

That made Anto's heart sink. That one Absol nearly killed him, now he had to deal with Six of these things?

To be honest, he was scared, frightened even, but for some reason he found himself calming down faster. Perhaps from all of that time being used to all of these bad things happening, he started to build immunity for all this horrible, bad luck, and maybe he was learning to roll with the punches.

Either way, his sense of dread was dying out quickly, but all his mind could come up was how screwed over they were.

All she did was point towards him and his Pokémon.

"Take him down, hard."

And everything went from bad to worse in seconds.

With almost amazing and uncanny speed, somehow, Cacturne almost looked to will himself over to Ohko and back hand him with a Needle Arm, slamming the fighting type into the gym through the locked door. The dark type didn't even look like he moved his legs, rather it looked as if the ground was dragging him along at twisted speeds, but the speed and movement he showed, followed by the unsettling smile as he slowly turned his neck at the others, made him wrought fear into his enemies.

They all ran after Ohko, and away from Mega Cacturne, hiding in the refuge inside the de powered gym filled with Roller coasters. They picked up Ohko, who slowly got back up from the blow.

Then Mega Milotic slithered through the wall first.

"_Lily, Energy Ball!_"

Not wasting time, The Shiny launched a grass type move on the beautiful creature and it exploded on impact.

However, a glowing light coming from the smoke and Lily was shocked by an invisible force and fell to her knees.

Anto was shocked, it didn't look like move that just hurt Lily, it was too instant, too reactive. It must have been some kind of ability that reflected damage back at the user. Well that was unfair!

The walls were then ripped apart and were forced open by psychic energy, revealing an Espeon among the ranks. As the boulders were dropped to make room for the other Mega Pokémon, the Espeon turned back into Mega Eevee in a flash of pink light. This signified that Mega Eevee can transform and access all of its evolutions interchangeably, a very frightening ability.

"Hypnosis!" Anto tried again, maybe by at least momentarily inflicting status aliments.

Takezo aimed for a hypnosis blast at the Meganium, but then the psychic beams quickly hit a rainbow shield that appeared between the attack and the mega and quickly reflected the attack back towards Takezo. The nimble normal type ducked and closed his eyes, avoiding the beam that was actually mean for his opponent.

Anto quickly recognized that ability. He had seen it when Tracey used Sleeping Powder on the Absol. That was Magic Bounce. Did all of her Pokémon really have her bases covered?

His concentration broke when he saw both Mega Stunfisk and Mega Flygon both gathering energy to attack. For Mega Stunfisk, a large, overwhelming orb of electricity was gathering and cackling it's it's long slithery hand claws while for Mega Flygon, his wings seemed to coail and the rings around it's tial seemed to be glowing all up to its neck.

"_Lily! Shield us! Everything you've got on it!_"

The grass type complied quickly trying to cover all five of them in a dome of Magic Leaf.

However, Flygon unleashed his attack a concentrated scream that seemed to be magnified and pointed towards the dome and Stunfisk unleashed a massive Thunderbolt attack that had pretty much doubled in both power and intensity.

From the trapped Ferris wheel, Mrs. Akio, paling in horror while taking care of Hilda, she looked in despair as she saw two powerfully unleashed attacks towards Anto. Seeing the building explode made her heart sink and her stomach drop. She watched in horror, before trying to take care of Hilda with the aftershocks of such powerful attacks.

The destructive force blasted through the pitiful dome and blasted it through the wall opposite side of the gym.

Inquisitor simply looked at the gauntlet. "Hmmm… a powerful Liligant. Had she not even tried to defend them, they all would have died from that. Still, it's near impossible to get back up again from something like that. But if it's the Seed…"

She and her Pokémon walked casually over the destruction and debris of the Nimbasa City Gym, electricity sparked out and dust covered broken large metal coasters, but still they moved as if all that destruction was nothing to them.

* * *

Things had gotten from bad to worse in seconds. The Mega Pokémon of Warden were amazingly resilient and powerful.

Despite literally having two champions, two gym leaders, an Elite Four member, the Leader of Team Plasma, Wes just hated how underpowered they were to the Faker's battle strategy.

The lesser peons of Team Plasma were sent to get the hostages out while battling some of the other members.

Yet was annoying was the fact that the fakers were way too coordinated. They were teleporting all over the place and making sure his attack wouldn't get it.

They all had their Pokémon out. It should have been easier, yet that didn't stop Mega Pinsir from body checking Wallace's Milotic through several pillars with just a simple Double Edge attack, didn't stop Accelegor, Alder's partner, from getting out sped and knocked out hard with a Blaze Kick from the inhumanly fast Mega Blaziken.

Mega Medicham was like a one man army, taking on several Pokémon at the same time with the ability to have six fists.

Mega Slowbro, while looking silly, was never impossible to damage, it was as if that thing had impenetrable armor.

Mega Sabelye was deceptive and annoying as freak. Blasting very quick Confuse Rays and Will-O-Wisp to any enemy he could see.

Mega Ampharos had amazing power behind her, blasting away at support that would have come from the other gym leaders.

Wes gritted his teeth, they were losing, losing bad. They couldn't land decisive blows and were taking a lot of hit themselves.

Then a thought occurred to him. Dark Types were immune or could cancel out psychic energy.

He had three.

It was a long shot, but—

"Wes, look out!"

Emerald's scream made the boy from Orre turn around, only to see Warden with an empowered Leaf Blade on his gauntlet swing at him. Wes barely dodged, but the swipe made a tear on his right arm, forcing the Snagger to clutch it from bleeding too much.

"If there is any constellation in all this," Warden stalked with his blade empowered. Wes's Pokémon all stood between the masked man and their trainer, but they looked tired from the other fighting.

Warden continued on, putting the blade above his head as if ready to strike. "It's that I can actually kill you this time."

He lunged at the boy.

* * *

Majus on the other hand had it far too easy.

He mega evolved all of his Pokémon and then proceeded to do something rather easy.

"Mega Banette, use Mirror Coat into the shape of a Disco Ball!"

Those last two words made every hero pause and process what he was saying.

"Did he just say Disco Ball?" Pearl asked as he and his Luxray, Raylord, avoided an aimed Charge Beam at them.

With the speed of its Prankster Ability, Multiple Mirror Coat attacks were piled up and condensed into such a sphere.

At that, all other lower peons backed off into the safety of the radio tower.

"What the heck is he doing with that?" Aster asked as she stared at the Banette concentrating on making his orb more intricate.

"Let's not him do whatever he's going to do, Charizard, Fire Blast!" Sebastian cried as his starter came inhaled deeply.

"Too late!" Majus cried as Banette tossed it into the air and the rest of his Pokémon except Mega Gengar looked away from the thing.

"Use Hypnosis!" Majus cried while closing his eyes.

Mega Gengar instantly attacked the crystallized ball with twin beams… that quickly exploded and scattered all throughout the area hitting pretty much everyone in the area, which were only the heroes.

However, some beams missed and some trainers were smart enough to avoid their hits, but it was too late, their numbers had been greatly incapacitated.

Majus smiled, looking at the greatly reduced numbers in front of him before sicking the rest of his Pokémon.

* * *

'You are so gullible.' A cold voice echoed in his mind, adding to the numbing pain.

His ears were ringing…

He couldn't see…

He felt heat burning his skin, smoke covering his lungs, and a strange numbing pain in his left arm…

Anto was sure it wasn't supposed to bend that way.

Coming his way, he could see it, a woman pointing a gun, wearing an iron Entei mask stalking slowly towards him. He saw six other of his Pokémon separating, seeing Takezo be stomped on by the Meganium, Lily being picked up then strangled by Mega Milotic, Ohko being stepped on the head by Mega Cacturne.

Sentinel being gripped tightly by Mega Stunfisk's claws.

Anto couldn't help but remember what had happened. Remember what he had caused because he resisted. He should have surrendered, if to spare all these people.

He could only tear up in his sorry state, not only from pain, but of failure. "_I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry… This is all my fault. I… I didn't know this would happen. I'm so sorry guys, I'm so sorry._"

Visions of him being alone somewhere came t his mind, the same heartache, betrayal, and hopelessness. He had felt something akin to this before, but without the physical pain. He didn't care now. It was all over.

All of his Pokémon woke up at that, then all of them struggled to free themselves as Inquisitor made her way towards Anto.

Lily screamed. "**Anto! Don't you dare! Don't give up on us now!**"

"_I'm sorry… I can't… it hurts so much…_"

"**Anto! … I never got to tell her that she was wrong!**" Lily screamed, out loud, distracting Inquisitor for a second and making her look at the Pokémon. "**The reason I always wanted to meet one of the swords of justice was to tell them they were wrong! A long time ago, I accidentally started a fire by messing with a human's car, it exploded in the forest, but the human of that car shielded me from severe burns! When he tried to bring us out, The sword of justice killed him! Saying that he was horrible for starting this fire, then she whisked me away to safety! I was too stunned and horrified and a good person got killed because of me—"**

"Milotic, shut her up." Inquisitor said, finally tired of all that screaming that Liligant was doing.

Lily still continued despite Milotic crushing her body. "**I'm not doing that again! I don't want to watch in silence as someone kind dies because of me again! Live Anto! Please don't die!**"

Takezo yelled out as well. "**She's right Anto! I will not stand and lose another person precious to me! I made that mistake last time! I want to be with you, I enjoy traveling with you despite all of your short comings. I will not stand here… and let her kill you!**"

"Shut them up!"

"**We won't give up!**" Sentinel trashed under Mega Stunfisk's grip.

"**We** **ain't gonna let them! We gonna choose to be with ya, boss!**" Ohko gripped and started moving as well.

Hearing them all suffer, hearing them all strive so hard for him…

They would really go so far… for an unlucky mute amnesiac like him? For someone so insignificant?

... No one... has ever done that for him before...

Anto, moving against all numbing pain and struggling greatly to get back up, "_Then I… Then I…_"

His mind poured visions and sounds of cruel laughter, and showed a vision of a blurry girl. Their laughter pierced his heart for reasons he couldn't explain. The voice came back into his mind, the one telling him that this was all his fault that he was making everything worse by struggling, by living. That he should just eat dust and let this all end, then maybe she would spare his Pokémon, his friends...

Inquisitor pointed the gun quickly again.

'No…'

'No!'

Anto defied all of this, his friends were still calling out to him, still desperately trying to help him even though they know it would cause them pain. Were Pokémon really that loyal? He was sure he treated them kindly, but why were they willing to go so far for him?

But that wasn't it. If these wonderful, amazing, and beautiful Pokémon would fight so hard for him…

He was going to do the same for them!

"_I choose to be with you guys as well!_" He snapped open his eyes back at Inquisitor, burning with defiance.

"The Orders were clear: Kill, subject 5."

She aimed for his face pulled the trigger.

But too little too late, the bullet flew…

Right into a petal pointing itself towards the bullet! The bullet smashed into the Petal, but a powerful force made it stop the bullet just millimeters right between Anto's eyes.

Inquisitor turned to where Lily was wrapped under Milotic's grip. "Ice beam! Stop her from doing that again!"

At the same time, Anto snapped his head at the opposite direction. "_Now, Ohko! Elbow his leg!_"

His fighting type complied quickly, using his elbow to slam away Mega Cacturne's foot on him before kicking him in the chin.

Anto quickly moved. "_Sen bite his claws then escape and Kick Milotic with a shadow Sneak! Ohko, throw Cacturne at Meganium!"_

His Pokémon moved at the same time, Ohko, with his herculean strength, caught Cacturne and threw him at Meganium, the same time Sentinel bit hard on Stunfisk's claws and disappeared into the shadows before launching himself and kicking Milotic in the face and freeing Lily at the same time with Takezo.

Inquisitor panicked at the hysteria and tired again to shoot Anto, by pointing the pistol at him, but this time, a wooden blade was thrown forcing her to miss her shot and hit the area where there was nothing there but debris.

The blade flew from the bounce being caught by a jumping Patrat who landed skillfully between her and Anto, blade pointing at her and a fierce looking sword stance ready.

Sentinel jumped from behind the shadows and to Anto's front right, snarling hard and claws sharpened.

Ohko jumped towards Anto's front left, willing to stand by his trainer and to fight hard against crazy odds.

Lily, slid towards Anto's left side, magical leaves all scattered and prepared behind her and her friends that were all pointed towards Inquisitor and her six mega Pokémon.

Inquisitor was shocked. This was impossible. How could four measly, strange Pokémon, and a young, broken armed trainer be causing her this much trouble!? She had Six Mega Pokémon in her command and the highest tech at her disposal!

Anto, breathed deeply, before standing tall and glaring right back at Inquisitor's red eyes behind her mask.

"_Tell whoever sent you this!_" Anto mentally stated with new vigor in his mental speaking. He pointed his good hand towards here defiantly. "_This 'Subject 5' is fighting back!_"

It was a bold declaration coming from a boy who was injured along with weakened, injured, and outnumbered Pokémon to fight against much stronger and healthier Mega Pokémon under a highly skilled agent equipped with state of the art technology.

It was crazy!

Stupid!

Foolish!

Bizarre even!

Yet…

The way his simple amber eyes stared down the impossibly strong opponents down…

You could almost say, he was destined to prove them all wrong.

* * *

**{Author notes}**

**Hey guys! I got great news! I joined up a new free writing site called 'Inkitt'. It's pretty cool since it does more than just let me write Fanfiction.**

**It might actually help me in starting a career in writing! (Fingers are crossed.)**

**Anyway, I'm moving copies of my major works over there. Though, it's going to be re-edited a lot, because I corrected some paragraph structure, grammar, and it has to actually look like a real novel, so there are going to be less notes unless I make them into something like separate chapters all together, to make the books more organized than here.**

**I hope you guys can support me there too! I'm still PhantomGalaxy13 over there, so whoo for original names!**

**I would appreciate it if you guys would still show some support over there as well as over here. you don't need to review or anything, just take a peak and see if you like their style of presenting stories rather than Fanfiction. **

**Thanks for reading, and hopefully the next chapter will come out soonish as well so we can finally get on with this!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	25. Ep 25: The Defiant!

Episode 25: Festival of Ruin part 3

* * *

Summer didn't understand why, but when she opened her eyes, she couldn't help like she forgot something.

She was waking up from a table desk back at the Ranger Union.

"You awake?"

She turned her groggy head towards the voice to find Jack and Ben waiting for her.

"How long was I asleep?"

"The whole plane ride here. I didn't think the Jet lag would be that bad for you." Jack took a chair across from her.

Ben vouched for her. "Well she did have a brief recon mission in Kanto, so I think the Time Zone there is different from Unova."

A little Pichu with a blue guitar climbed Ben's shoulder. "Pichu!"

Ben smiled, making Summer smile as well before he seemed to notice something. "Oh! Summer, you didn't tell me you'd change your hairstyle."

Summer blinked and felt her head. It wasn't the original hair style she had in Oblivia. It was more styled as a simple pony tail that went up to the bottom of her shoulders.

The female Pokémon Rnager let her hand go through her hair, and then she wondered, 'When did I… did I change my hairstyle?'

"**Summer!**"

The Girl ranger snapped her head around. She thought she heard a young girl's voice somewhere.

"Is something wrong?" Jack asked.

"Didn't… didn't you guys hear that?"

"Hear what, Summer?" Ben asked as his Pichu looked at her intently.

Summer pointed behind her. "There was a girl calling my name, wasn't there?"

Jack and Ben looked at each other. "We didn't hear anything."

At response to this, she placed her hand on her head. "O-Oh."

The two fellow rangers looked at each other expectantly.

"Wanna go back to your room? Maybe you could sleep a bit more since we don't have a mission yet."

"**Summer! Please wake up!**"

"… I'm fine, Ben. Thank you though for offering." She smiled softly before standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find Blue Berry Bagels."

"**Congrats, you're a nerd.**"

That odd, cocky, insulting, but very familiar voice made Summer look around. For some reason she looked towards a wanted board and looked towards the posters from the Orre region.

"Blue Berry Bagels?" Jack, the blonde Pokémon Ranger, asked with curiosity. "Never seen you eat those before."

"I guess… I'm just craving them?" She shrugged before leaving the two back at the table.

Then she found herself assigned with Jack and Keith walking down the outskirts forest of Nacerne City.

"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this place…" Summer said as she saw Pokémon go about their daily life around the forest.

"Man well that's a good thing isn't it?" Keith raised his hands lazily behind his head.

"I guess… wait… how… how did we…" Summer stopped walking with the other two. "How did we get all the way over here?"

The two rangers looked at her confusingly.

"We rode on flying Pokémon. Some other rangers were kind of enough to let us ride on Staraptors, Fearows, and Pidgeots before dropping us of here. You alright Summer?" Jack asked her.

"**Summer! Please! They're taking us away!**"

"Who's that girl? … Guys?" Summer asked as she didn't find herself in the forest anymore.

She was all alone in a deep dark place that no one could find her.

* * *

Anto was, despite making such a bold claim, kind of scared—OK he was actually trembling in horror. He's arm was bending and aching in a way that it shouldn't have. Not only that, he was facing against six Mega Pokémon with only four of his normal (ish) ones.

Yet oddly, he wasn't letting his fear get the better of him. This was looking bleak, but strangely, he felt hopeful.

"_Lily, now!_" Anto mentally screamed before the empowered leaves all encircled the five of them in another dome.

Inquisitor briefly wondered why he was doing that again. "Blast it to kingdom come, all of you! Do not let even the ashes remain!"

All six of her Mega Pokémon unleashed a torrent of power towards the dome of leaves. There was no contest. A large blast exploded and shook the entire area.

* * *

[Elsewhere.]

Everyone looked towards the explosion.

"Wait!" N cried out as he looked towards that direction. He and everyone in that place knew that direction was not the area of the radio tower. Which only meant that… "That area is!?"

"The Amusement Park!?" Wallace cried out.

Warden gritted his teeth. 'Dang it Inquisitor! I thought you had him already!' He mentally raged.

Wes saw Warden briefly distracted before he motioned to his Pokémon to sneak away from Warden. Wes quickly passed by Arran on his way out.

"Dude, I have a plan I need to try out, can you hold the legendary poser off for a bit?" He whispered quickly.

"For his sake, you plan better work." Arran stated as he brandished his blade. "Or I might not be able to restrain myself."

"Dude, you sound like a bloody psychopath, but thanks." Wes said as he called his Pokémon to follow him towards the main hall of the place.

Warden turned back and saw Wes escaping. "Hey!" But was blocked by Arran and his Pokémon.

Arran brandished his blade. "You will pay dearly for endangering innocent people."

Warden threw his gauntlet, allowing the Leaf Blade attack to glow and leave a fading after image as he swung it.

"Stuck ups like you really get on my nerves." He spat before the two quickly clashed blades. Warden pushed Arran back before coming up close and activating his gauntlet again.

"You have the gall to call me stuck up!?" Arran accused, ready to bring his blade down.

"Discharge." The gauntlet cried out before a large area of electricity bolted out and shocked Arran.

The fighter boy staggered back before he was punched hard in the stomach. Arran staggered forward, choking out as he felt the impact of the hit, his lungs collapsing inward and drool coughing form his moth.

"Seismic Toss." Warden grabbed Arran in the arm, tossed him around in a circle before letting go, and making him slam into a wall.

"Now that that's over with, where's my first… victim?" Warden nonchalantly said as he looked around. He tensed briefly before activating a Protect move to shield himself from a shuriken aimed right for the back of his head. "Figures, you're actually one of those ninja clans... why the hell do I get all the weirdoes?" He scoffed as Arran slowly got back up from the impact.

* * *

[At the same time...]

Diamond, Ruby, Aster, and Black, the only four humans who were awake, saw the explosion several miles away.

"That's towards the Amusement park!" Black shouted before looking back to Majus. "So that's where The Prez's mom and Anto are!"

"Do ya really think me be going to let ya go there?!" Majus angrily answered as he pointed to them. "Nori, use Rock Polish!"

The Mega Aggron roared, making her steel plating look cleaner and crisp.

"Heavy Slam!"

The Female Mega let out a shrill roar before rushing in at blurring speeds to the last awake remaining people.

Then, Sebastian's Dragonite, flew in and stood in front of the Mega, but only slowed it down enough for the others to get away and let only the female Dragonite get crushed through an entire building.

"We gotta wake up the others!" Black yelled out. He looked back at some of his Pokémon, and smiled as he saw one of them wake back up, a Pokémon able to help turn the tides back in their favor. "Musha! Wake everyone up!"

The psychic type cried out, before its own shadow jumped out and struck Musha hard in its stomach before quickly coiling around the dream Pokémon and revealing Mega Banette trapping said psychic Pokémon.

"Bale, take that dream Pokémon out!"

Before the Ghost type could strike, a Capture Disk flew around it and harmed Banette with dragonic energy closing in on it.

"Oh no you don't!" Aster cried with stylus out and Bagon launching his own Dragonbreath attack on the coiling Mega.

Majus looked behind him and towards the building where his back up was and screamed, "Hurry up, man! Move!"

At his command all of the other members jumped out and appeared around the other trainers and Pokémon.

"Crap!" Ruby shouted as more of the members teleported back out and started lifting up the sleeping forms of some of their allies. Ruby in particular was quite angry to see them picking up Sapphire.

"Let go of them!" He roared angrily before raising his fist at Majus.

"And then what?" Majus answered with a mocking scoff and folded arms. "Ya be in no position to make orders man. Not to mention, half of ya Pokémon are still asleep, and the ones that are, ain't your Pokémon!"

Diamond stepped up in front of everyone. There was an unusual look of seriousness and solemnity in his eyes before he pointed accusingly at Majus.

"Give us back our friends! Or else!" He held a Poké Ball in his hand.

Majus eyed the Poké Ball in his hands. "Oh, so ya saved one Pokémon. What's it gonna do to turn the tides of battle?" Majus mocked some more.

That was probably the wrong choice of words to say, considering Regiggas, the Legendary Titan of Sinnoh, appeared right front of the fake commander.

* * *

Arran and his Pokémon did his best to hold Warden's Megas off, but they were being pushed back hard.

"Wes!? Anytime now!?" The purple haired swordsman cried out to the Snagger.

"Hey, we only got one shot at this, don't rush me!" Wes shouted back before looking at his two starters. "Alright you guys, think you can do this?"

"**I know my dual move can do that, but the type of range though…**" Umbreon said unsurely as Zwelious fought back a Kirlia and a Kadabra.

"**Not to mention, I may have the ability to expand… but Dark Energy? My powers don't work on that at all!**" Espeon told him.

"Espeon, relay my thoughts. I think I have a thought process, but if it's going to work we'll need you to close all windows in this area. I sent Wartortle ahead, and he's working as fast as he can."

"… **Well, there's no way to disprove this but…**" His psychic started.

"There's also no way it might work in the first place. But as it stands right now, we kind of are getting battered all over the place." Wes stated. "I don't know how much the others can hold off the Raikou poser with them taking this much damage from their support, but…"

"Well, if Anto can abuse the rules of Pokémon physics, who's to say we can't try?"

* * *

Speaking of said boy, Anto and his Pokémon escaped Sentinel's Phantom Force dimension and landed on the opposite side of the docks.

Lily shivered. "**Brr! That was cold!**"

"_Don't remind me… gah my arm!_" Anto mentally whined as the adrenaline died down a bit, and made the pain shock his brain.

"**Ouch, that looks painful.**" Ohko noted simply.

"**How are we going to fight our opponents?**" Takezo asked.

"… _We need new dual moves. We only used one of them, but now we're a bit limited. First thing first, Lily_," He turned to his grass type. "_We need you to combine Synthesis with Aromatherapy, think you can do that?_"

"**How am I supposed to do that?**"

"_Umm… try absorbing sunlight as usual, there still should be some despite the dust clouds… then releasing it via Aromatherapy._"

"… **Well, let's see…**" Lily began to glow energy.

Anto quickly turned to his fighting type. "_OK, Ohko… twist my arm back into place._"

He knew his arm would be more of a liability at this rate, if those healing pulses during his movie work helped with his injuries, then this should work in at least putting his arm back to normal.

… Hopefully?

Maybe he shouldn't try to risk his body with something he isn't entirely sure will wor—

"**Kay.**" The fighting type agreed easily before grabbing, the arm and making the young boy flinch hard. Since he wasn't able to make a sound, he didn't yell out his position.

That didn't stop the sudden jerk and pop of his hand being forced back into the right way, hurt like a…

"_Mullafuap-der!_" Anto mentally screamed some random word and gibberish, unfortunately catching the attention of Inquisitor's Fairy and Dark types.

Inquisitor looked towards the direction of her Pokémon's glances and put on her heat tracking function of her mask. Lo and behold, she saw several heat signatures in that direction that was small enough to be living beings.

"As soon as you see any of them, kill them."

If there was one thing that was going for Anto, Lily had made the new fusion move work, the new combined move, Sun Fragrance, healed a good majority of damage of the party around her, even soothing the great pain of Anto to the point he could move his former broken arm with slight soreness. It wasn't as powerful as the Audino's healing him, but it would have to do.

"**I… I think I can only use that move two more times.**" Lily said as she finished.

"_It'll have to do, Lily. Takezo, you and Lily start using your boosting moves, Swords Dance and Quiver Dance to the max. Ohko, Sen, we'll have to discuss some new ideas of Fusion moves that's the only way we stand a cha—_"

Suddenly, Ohko snapped away from Anto and the others, only to block another Needle Arm from the Mega Cacturne who had just almost appeared in front of them. The spike protruding outward from one of his arms was being held and grabbed by Ohko.

"**Not a second time yo**!" Ohko cried as he tired punching the Mega after letting go of the spike, only for him to hit an after image and get slammed by an empowered Needle Arm on to his back and making the force of the slash hit the fighting type away.

"**Oh this is too easy.**" The Cacturne cockily turned around to avoid a Dragonbreath. Just afterward, he Sucker Punch(ed) Sentinel before turning to Lily and Anto.

Takezo, blade behind his head, slashed at Mega Cacturne's side, but the mega grass and dark type avoided that attack as well, and did the same thing with Ohko in that he went behind Takezo and attempted to slice him with another Needle Arm.

But that was Takezo wanted. He knew his attack would miss, but now, he could activate his own Detect move the moment his attack missed.

The Patrat's eyes shined blue. In slow motion, Takezo side stepped the attack as it hit the ground were Takezo was briefly, and he spun as he side stepped, swinging his body to face his opponent. In that swinging motion, he threw his sword right towards the eye of the Mega Cacturne with precision accuracy. The opposing cactus Pokémon threw his head back in pain, making Takezo capitalize this and dash into between his legs. Takezo, with professional skill and speed, crossed his arms then swung them both to slam into the back knees of his opponent, making his opponent lose balance and fall down faster.

The Dark type found himself falling into the ground, his evil eyes looked up to see a shadow descending quickly down before him then he saw his enemy Patrat jump above him and grab the descending sword and falling down with its motion ready to bring it down hard on him.

Mega Cacturne got back up on his feet and rolled out of the way and back into standing, just in time to avoid a large, enhanced blade of darkness cutting open the ground he was momentarily.

He thought he was a goner for a second, but then he felt someone stepping towards him so he quickly turned around—

Before he got punched in the face by a powerful, empowered Reversal Attack.

Mega Cacturne, despite flying, back flipped mid air and slid a good distance, right back to Mega Meganium, and Mega Molitic. The grass type Pokémon gave out her own Healing Pulse and soon most of the Dark and Grass Mega's wounds were gone.

The rest of Inquisitor's group followed closely after. The woman putting away her pistol and activating a Sacred Sword move from the Gauntlet.

"Mega Stunfisk, Mega Eevee, Thunderbolt"

Anto reached into his inner jacket pockets. "_Guys, catch!_"

He quickly threw three items, Choice Band to Ohko, Choice Scarf to Takezo, and Choice Specs to Lily.

Mega Stunfisk unleashed another powerful blast of thunder towards the five while Mega Eevee turned into Jolteon and fired his own empowered attack. Ohko and Sen moved first, both activating Reversal and Dragon Claw as the massive bolt reached their fist and claw. The shockwave of the attack forced everyone to shield their eyes and as the dust died down, Ohko and Sen were looking more worn out.

"**Idiots!**" Lily yelled as she prepared another healing move. "**I can only mass heal two more…**" She stopped when Ohko raised his one hand out at her to stop her from healing them.

"**It's a'ight, bro,**" Ohko started placing the band on his head, making it hide the very top of his eyes before he stepped forward fist raised.

Then he pumped out another Reversal attack, it's brilliant blue light fierce and brighter than before. "**They ain't knocking me down!**"

Sentinel unleashed two eerily empowered Shadow Claws on both his sides, signaling his Ghost type Blaze had activated. "**They'll have to do better than that!**"

Takezo looked to Lily, before nodding to her and raising his blade and putting on his scarf around his neck.

Lily groaned. "**You guys are idiots…**" She silently whispered before smiling and putting on her choice specs.

"I had enough of this!" Inquisitor yelled and pointed her sword at them. "Take down his Pokémon and don't let them interfere with me!"

Anto needed a plan, fast.

Well… simple was always the best. Anto figured he'd try to make things up as they go—like all great heroes do: abuse the crap out of the situation until something good happens in your favor.

Anto pointed back at Inquisitor and her charging six megas.

"_Listen here… uhh… whoever you are! We're not going to take your crap anymore! This time: we're going to be running this!_"

"Tch!" Inquisitor clicked her tongue as she readied her weapon, all of her Megas fiercely got ready to launch themselves at their opponents as well as Anto's Pokémon doing the same to their enemies.

Still pointing at her, Anto made a big smile. He finally had come up with a plan! A plan so crazy that it would have to work!

He was going to do it. He was going to reveal his master plan to his Pokémon and completely take Inquisitor by surprise!

"_Alright everyone!_" Anto yelled, pumping his Pokémon up.

"_RUN!_"

Then Anto bolted as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

… What?

"**Anto!? Return at once! What was the meaning of this!?**" Takezo shrieked as he went after his friend to give a good scolding too.

"**YEAAAHHH WHOOO!**" Ohko quickly yelled as he ran obliviously after his trainer. "**You punks in for it now...!**" His voice died down as he raced after Anto while everyone was still too stupefied at the sudden declaration. Somehow he didn't realize that by running away from the enemy, he was in no way instilling fear into their hearts.

"**Wait, Anti-Labcoat! You're supposed to throw yourself at impossible odds that will likely hurt you a lot! You're going the wrong direction!**" Snetinel sunk into the shadows and quickly went after the running boy.

"**Idiots! The lot of you!**" Lily grabbed her flower head and yelled hysterically before using her increased speed to go after her friends.

Meanwhile, Inquisitor and her Pokémon just stared.

"Kill him. I don't care how. Make sure he dies painfully."

Inquisitor finally said before all her Pokémon chased after the boy and his.

If anything, Anto's plan did surprise people… just… for the wrong reasons…

* * *

[Back with Wes…]

Wes smiled; Espeon just told him it was ready.

Arran, Stein, and his other Pokémon were being pushed back by the Mega Medicham and Mega Blaziken with Warden slowly closing in as his fist filled with electricity died down.

"When is this plan of your going to work!?" Arran, battered and injured, cried as he held his blade.

Wes put on his visor.

"NOW! Everyone, pick a target and hit them hard and fast!"

That was all Wes said before Umbreon unleashed a massive Shadow Unknown attack covering the entire inside of the building with dark energy, but not attacking anything.

"What the?" Warden cried out as him and the rest of his team was suddenly surrounded by dark energy. "What's this all about?"

Emerald seemed to get what this attack was doing. "Sceptile, quick! Leaf Blade!" He pointed over to a Claydol next to a Croconaw.

"Teleport, Claydol!" One of the opposing fakes exclaimed.

The psychic type gathered energy, but all of his eyes widened when he couldn't muster the attack and he and his water type companion was slashed by the grass type move.

"What!?" The enemy cried out in shock

Emerald clenched his fist. "Guys! The whole place is covered in dark type energy! They can't Teleport anymore!"

N then glared at the opposing Pokémon of the fakes. "In that case…" He pointed his friends and his subjects towards the fakers. "Show these thieves what happens to those who smear our name for their own selfish desires!"

They were no longer on the defensive, the champions, Elite Four, Gymleaders, and Team Plasma all launched themselves towards their enemies with their tactical advantage gone.

Warden however…

"Everyone! Aim for the Umbreon! Take him out now!" The leader wearing the Raikou mask shouted out. All six of his Mega Pokémon stopped what they were doing and unleashed a flurry of attacks at Wes and his Pokémon.

"Espeon! Light Barrier!" Wes called out Espeon's new Fusion move, combining both Reflect and Light Screen. The psychic Pokémon bent it in such a way it shielded a dome over him, his dragon ally, his brother, and his trainer shielding all four from an attack from six different sides.

Still, the close range users, like Mega Pinsir, Mega Blaziken, Mega Medicham, and even Mega Sableye were trashing on one side of the shield while the rest like Mega Ampharos and Mega Slowbro were shooting from a far.

Both Eons were tiring out from keeping their respective fusion moves up like this for a long time.

Umbreon weakly chuckled as he tried to concentrate with his brother. "**Man… is this what giving birth feels like? No wonder our mom abandoned us.**"

Espeon scoffed as he did his best to keep the dome up. "**I think she was taken away from us after we were bred. One of those two really.**"

Umbreon paused for a second, trying to keep his move surrounding the entire building.

"… **Do you think she would have been proud of us?**"

"Even if she isn't, I am," Wes added seriously. "I'm more than proud; I can't imagine life without you two."

"… **Pssh! You make it sound like we're going to die or something!**" Espeon scoffed again as cracks started to appear on his dome.

A smirk curled up Wes' lips. "What? A trainer can't show his appreciation to his Pokémon in a hopeless looking situation for the heck of it? Well fine, the next time we almost die, I'm just going to insult you guys for stealing my food."

Mega Medicham reclined all six of his fists, ready to smash this dome, until he felt stubby arms grab his waist.

He looked down and saw Delta Wartortle holding him in a lock.

"**Ha!**" The dark fighting type called as he lifted Mega Medicham of the dark ground and supplexed him back into it.

The other close combatant Megas stopped their assault as they turned their attention to the Delta Species.

Then Arran's Pokémon came rushing in after them, trying to help stave them off. Arran's Salamence, Ragnarok, impressively swooped down on Mega Slowbro and went to work on crunching that almost impossible shell.

Stein and Excalibur, Arran's Excadrill, rushed the Mega Blaziken only for the speedy Pokémon simply slipped over their dual attack.

Alder's Accelgor appeared almost instantly in right above Mega Pinsir, dousing and unleashing a torrent of Acid attack on the Mega Pokémon from above.

Mega Sabeleye looked away, not noticing that Wallace's Milotic was angry for revenge.

And lastly Mega Ampharos was attacked behind by Valarie's Sylveon.

Warden gritted his teeth. They were losing ground and fast. There was no choice left.

The commander primed an Aura Sphere attack quickly before launching it towards Wes. The attack hit an already weakened and cracked area that his Megas were already working on, so it pierced thorough and blurred right for the thief from Orre.

This forced his two Eons to be shocked and jump in front of their trainer to block the attack. However, with both the twins hit, the dark area encompassing the area was dispelled.

"Wes!?" Emerald and Jamie screamed towards the explosion.

Warden looked back at his crew. "Everyone, execute Dying Wind!" He commanded powerfully, making his voice Echo around the area. All fake members of his group wearing masks quickly disengaged all their fights and used their Pokémon to vanish. Warden avoided a swipe from Arran before all of his Mega Pokémon escaped and using a bright Flash move to blind everyone, he escaped with all of his members.

Arran cursed before looking towards the smoke. Wes and his Eons were walking out, Umbreon was held in Wes' arms but looked just hurt, nothing too bad. Espeon looked worse for wear, but held on as well.

"They all left." Alder said.

After coughing a bit, Wes turned towards the Amusement Park, "But I know where they went! Come on!" He cried as he ran out of one of the wall holes with his other two dark Pokémon not too far behind. Shortly after, many of the others followed after him except Alder, N, and team Plasma since they had to take care of the hostages.

"I swear," Wes gritted his teeth as he continued to run towards the smoking Amusement park. "Anto just gets himself in the absolute worst situations!"

* * *

[Meanwhile with Summer…]

Summer wasn't fairing well. The darkness closed in on her, and she found herself trying to run from something huge, something malevolent.

It hurt her honestly. It attacked her physically, tears in her muscles, cuts on her skin, and there was this mocking voice in her head.

If that wasn't bad enough, she heard voices.

"Why are you even a ranger anyway? All you do is make things worse."

"Do you have any idea how much we have to pick up your slack? Everything would be better if you weren't here."

"Do you ever shut up?"

Then… his voice came out, distorted, hateful, piercing, and heart shattering.

"You will always be a failure, just give up." Seeing the look his face had when he showed disgust towards her hurt. It hurt so much.

Those words hurt her so much, she knew they weren't real, but it didn't stop them from hurting, from making their words confirm her darkest doubts.

She started crying, she knew it was fake, but still, she couldn't take the pain. She still cried seeing all those loving, caring people she bonded so closely to betray her emotions with such words.

Images, darker images of her friends, and scary forms of her previous enemies plagued her mind, shouting cursing words, and hateful spite.

Out of all the many cursing and the pain in her heart, she wished it would all finally stop.

"… You really just going to sit there and take it?"

That voice was different. Somehow the evil voices seemed to die down a little. It wasn't cruel and hateful, but it was cocky, smug—like some idiot know it all and smart aleck.

Summer looked up then she frowned. She frowned harder than she was suffering. Why was _he _here?

"Sunnuva, why… are you… the only one who I can see clearly… Wes?"

The glowing figure of Wes among the Darkness was both a curse, and a curse. Especially for the girl ranger.

As if to further her torment, Imaginary-Wes sat down and kicked his feet up mid air as if he was reclining on a seat… while floating. "Well, your brain just can't imagine me beyond smug and cocky. Apparently you think about me so much, my insults for you will always be thought in this manner—so good job for that Nerd. I can't think of anything mean towards you with a cocky and somewhat condescending tone."

Summer got back up, looking just annoyed at the Orre boy. "Oh shut it… wait… why did the other voices stop?"

"Because this is a Dream Eater attack. There was a Gengar remember? Who do you think is keeping everyone asleep?"

Summer seemed only confused at that. "That doesn't answer my question."

Wes continued to look uncaring as he answered. "Because unlike the others, you just so happen to have someone who was experimented on that could reach the human dreaming subconscious on par with a Musharna."

Before she could question Wes, that same girlish voice came back to her.

"**Summer! I finally got to you!**"

The darkness parted, and out came a world with endless sea, endless blue sky, and the sun brightly above them all.

"Flow? Where-where are we? Why does this place look so familiar?" Summer looked around her.

The Delta's voice echoed through. "**We are in your mindscape! This is one of your favorite memories! I think it's from when you were sailing a pirate boat in the Obiliva seas…**"

Summer, seeing her pain go away, stood back up and placed a hand on her head. "OK, what is going on?"

"**We were hit with a Hypnosis attack remember? It put many of us to sleep and now the others that are left are trying to rescue us from the enemy's forces. You've been asleep this whole time and kept asleep by that Gengar's Dream Eater as Wes explained!**"

Summer waved her hands. "Flow, Flow," She looked to the imaginary thief now relaxing on a hammock tied by two palm trees and drinking out of coconut with those cute little umbrellas. … He sure was making himself comfortable in _her _dreamscape. "WHY. Why is _Wes_ even here?"

"**Um well, I needed to stop the nightmares, so a strong memory of someone close to you will help weaken the nightmares, but from what little I know about you, you looked closest to Wes, and while there might have been closer people, I've never met them. So I animated your mental image of Wes to help save you from your nightmares.**"

"In other words, I won by default in playing your spirit animal, my favorite way to win. I would have saved you sooner, but I was flirting with your mental images of your other female friends—they are waayyyy hotter than you." Mental Wes stopped sipping his drink to lift it up and say that to Summer.

The girl leered at how the free loader was still making himself look comfortable in _her_ mind. "I swear to Arceus Wes, tied up and kicked off a cliff!"

"I'd like to see you try; I'm not even real remember?" Dream Wes put on his shades and picked up a straw hat for him to place on his head. "Now I wonder if there are any pirate treasures I can get while I'm here…? Hey Nerd, wanna be my 'nakama' or whatever, and go find treasure from a dead pirate king? You get to be the obligatory fan service girl, or something more useless since your flat chested and all."

Summer lost it. She was not the f-word! (For her it's flat) "AAAAHHHHHH! THAT'S IT! FLOW, WAKE ME UP NOW!"

"**B-But Summer! I still haven't explained this plan that I have to save our friends and how the enemies are bringing us—**"

Flow then decided to just wake her up seeing as she just charged madly towards Dream Wes like a hungry predator.

Still, she was quite surprised. She animated the Wes personality to motivate Summer, and in a very unorthodox manner, riled Summer to the point of wanting to smash skulls in. The sweet little delta couldn't help but feel curious as to how this all worked.

* * *

[It was all a dream.]

Back in the field, Flow woke up and found herself almost about to be grabbed by one of the fake grunts, she quickly jumped out of the way and pushed the guy away with a Confusion. After sending him flying, she quickly looked to see Summer and the poor guy holding her like a hostage.

It was then the Delta Pokémon noticed the very large and giant white Pokémon towering over the field.

Majus had to admit, Regigias caught him off guard. However, he still had the advantages of hostages—

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

"Oh ArceBFFFKK!?" One masked faker cried out before being silenced violently.

Everyone looked over to see Summer had woke up—and was looking quite ticked off. She was ticked off enough to punch her captor in the chin, and still be in some crazed, berserk state as she looked at the other fake members.

"Quick, Golbat, subduAAPRRR!" one guard tried to tell the others to capture her again, but Summer had impressive jump kicked him in the face before Running up and hammering another faker by driving her elbow into his soft cheeks and knocking off a tooth. The Pokémon of the trainer looked like he wanted to avenge his trainer, but paled as his instincts screamed at him to be paralyzed in fear at Summer's death gaze.

The trainers who were still awake stared in shock as Summer went to town on the bad guys.

"What in the dark world?" Majus spoke out in a stupefied manner.

"I have never seen Summer that angry before…" Aster spoke out as they saw Summer Supplex another poor guard who just actually tried to run away from her and dropped Platinum to the ground.

"I WILL GET YOU WES!" Summer shrieked out to the heavens from the battlefield before locking onto her next prey.

Wes, meanwhile, sneezed.

Majus looked to his shadow. "Genji! I be tellin' ya to make a nightmare to demoralize them! Not… whatever this be!?"

The Mega Gengar popped out from his shadow, as if to say he wasn't expecting this. Majus turned over to his scared followers, to force them to use their Pokémon on the girl before he heard a psychic attack hitting his Mega Banette, Bale.

Flow had taken this opportunity to free Musha, the Munna.

"**Musha! Now wake everyone up!**" Flow screamed.

The dream Pokémon nodded before making his eyes glow. In an instant, every other Pokémon and trainer woke up and wondered how there was a giant White Pokémon fighting off two flying megas and why Summer was screaming her lungs out.

Majus saw this how bad things were getting and decided now was the time to retreat. "Everyon' time for Dying Wind!" At his command the remaining fakers were carrying their fallen comrades and teleported out of the area.

Majus' megas all retreated before his two ghost type megas did something to make them fall into the shadows.

"W-Where's my mom!?" White woke up, slightly frantic.

Black went to her, as did the others to their friends and to everyone who could.

Summer calmed down, but gasped for breath as the bad guys all left.

Flow cautiously poked her head out from nearby debristhen slowly made her way to her firend to see if she was alright. "**Summer? Are you alright?**"

"… I… I'm fine… good job Flow." She looked up to the smoke coming from an area she knew as the Amusement park. The Pokémon ranger looked over to the others getting their bearings and shouted, "Hey! What's going on with over there!?"

Aster shouted out the answer. "That's we're they sent Anto! And that might be where they went to!"

At that, everyone perked up, especially White. "That must be where my mom is too!"

Sebastian, waking up rather annoyed and with a crick in his neck, spoke up. "Well, I fall asleep for a while and somehow miss a Legendary Pokémon coming to our aid. Can someone explain while we make our way please?"

* * *

[Meanwhile…]

Anto ran.

Anto ran like a scared little boy.

Anto ran like a scared little boy because he was being chased by a highly trained assassin with an empowered blade that was trying to mince his head off his shoulders.

Truly, his finest hour.

"Hold still, you accursed brat!" Inquisitor screamed with a hint of irritation at how many times this younger boy was avoiding all of her killing blows.

"_Heck no, you crazed witch! I'm not letting you kill me! That's the point of me running!_" Anto ducked from a horizontal swing before sidestepping a following stab before running as fast as his legs could go.

"_And thank you, supreme cosmic beings up there, for throwing so many troubles at me that my own legs can out run an assassin! … But this better be the last curveball you throw at me, got it!?_"

Too bad no one was listening to that.

Yep.

No one heard that at all.

"**Watch out Anti! Incoming!**"

Anto looked to the sky before his eyes widened and he ended up sliding right under a swiping Mega Flygon with Sentinel clinging dearly on to the back of the creature.

"**Get off me!**" Mega Flygon roared as he raced to the sky to get the Delta Pokémon off him.

"**Sure, after you go eat a Dragonbreath!**" Sentinel inhaled with his non-existent dragonic lungs and unleashed a torrent of Dragonic energy at such a close range.

However, he neglected the fact that he was currently flying. Despite how close he was, even here, Mega Flygon could avoid even a point blank attack by making a quick ascension into the skies, making the G force push Sentinel's aim away from the body.

Meanwhile, Takezo avoided another Psychic wave attempting to crush him as he ran nearby some of the debris of the broken roller coaster ride.

"**Hold still, you jumpy circus freak!**" Mega Eevee, in the form of an Espeon cried out as she struggled to pin down the Patrat.

Takezo rolled away from the attack and into a running stance with his blade hand out. "**Huh, things do seem to repeat around us…**"

His eyes sharpened as he avoided a Sucker Punch from the Mega Cacturne attacking where he was now.

"**And you are much faster than I would expect of these… megas… you have the same ability as a rare Scolipede, don't you?**" Takezo asked the dark type.

"**What about it? I'm still faster than you!**"

Takezo unsheathed two wooden blades and pointed them to face his two opponents. "**While that is true, I must inform you that I have fought those faster than I.**"

Then the Patrat fixed the scarf around his neck.

"**Why you!**" Mega Cacturne cried out before unleashing a flurry of Needle Arms at the Pokémon. Takezo noticed something as Cacturne kept trying to hit him, his form was horrible. Despite the speed and power, he was just throwing his power into his attacks. The small samurai can abuse this.

Takezo ducked and slashed with his own Cut attack, but Cacturne dodged his attack as well. From that initial dogde, Takezo knew that he was equally even with his opponent, but there was also the fact that he was fighting alone against two others.

"**Hold still dang it**!" Mega Eevee turned into a Jolteon and squinted as she watched the two close combatants trail around in front of her in almost blurring motions. "**Dang it Cacturne, pin him down!**"

"**Shut up! You can turn into a psychic, you do it!**" The grass type shouted back at his ally before Takezo saw his opening. He quickly momentarily loosened his scarf so he could allow more versatility in his moveset, but lose more speed before he ran towards the Eevee turned Espeon, but not before channeling a quick and small Thunderbolt from his palm and zapping the Cacturne's face, to annoy him.

"**Why you?!**" He prepared a Sucker Punch, but in the very last second, Takezo barely dodged the punch and ducked under, leaving the attack to head towards the Espeon.

The needle was heading towards Espeon's forehead, but Takezo tightened his scarf for an extra boost of speed and threw his blade at Cacturne's arm, forcing the giant blade to miss the head but instead make Cacturne fall into the psychic type. As the sword bounced from its target it fell down and was caught by Takezo who was ready in a fighting stance against them.

His two opponents got off each other.

"**You…**" The Evee started. "**You saved me.**"

"**I have no reason to kill, nor do I wish that on you.**" Takezo said before his sharper senses made him feel something. "**However, I do wish for you to be currently hurt to the point of not being able to kill us.**" He activated Detect move, and the second he did, he jump flipped over Mega Flygon swiping at him.

Just as the same moment Takezo leapt, Sentinel jumped off, letting the dragon mega crash into his two teammates.

Sentinel and Takezo landed near each other.

The dust crash was split apart instantly, revealing an Espeon, an angry looking Mega Cacturne, and a absolutely livid Mega Flygon staring down their opponents.

The dragon ghost and Patrat sharpened their claws and brandished their wooden blade.

"**Two versus three? Are all fights this easy in the free world?**" Sentinel asked out.

"**I don't quite know, but I do know…**" Patrat held his sentence as the opposing Megas charged for the two of them. "**They are much more lively!**" they charged for the opposing three.

[Meanwhile.]

"**Dang it!**" Lily complained after using a normal Synthesis that was weakened by the smoke and smog covering the sun. However, Mega Milotic recovered much easier with her Recover attack. "**Why do all of my attacks hurt when I hit her?**" The grass type didn't know that this Mega Molitic came with an ability to reflect ranged damage back onto her enemies.

A large shock of electricity and water exploded behind her, but as she turned around, a brown and yellow blur passed by her and crashed into a wall beside the Mega Milotic.

Ohko came jumping beside Lily, looking slightly drenched in muddy water.

"**Ya probably need to work out more.**" The blue fighting type told her.

"**Did you just hear me complain?**" Lily asked before Mega Milotic shot an Ice Beam attack at the two of them. Lily and Ohko jumped out of the way. Mega Meganuim came around the corner, and shined brightly giving off essence that was quickly healing Mega Stunfisk who looked none too happy at Ohko.

Ohko threw away his coat he got from Valerie, it was cool but it was too damaged and it was honestly slowing him down again.

"**Ugh! They have better fire power and healing than you and I, what do we do?**" Lily complained as the three Megas prepared attacks towards their direction.

The shiny grass type turned over to Ohko, still smiling as he cracked his fist by clenching it tightly.

"**Then we gotta hurt them faster and harder!**" He threw his fist defiantly.

"**Easier said than done…**" Lily complained. However, Ohko turned to her, with a huge grin facing her.

"**Ya make it sound like this is suppose'ta be easy.**" He spoke simply before running towards the three Pokémon gathering energy.

The three megas unleashed a devastating combo of Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Solarbeam towards the Fighting type quickly dashing towards them.

Ohko's eyes narrowed but his smile grew larger as he stepped on the ground and ran even faster. He Side stepped the Ice Beam, jumped over the Solar Beam, and slid under the Thunderbolt, making all three attacks miss him. Ohko reclined his fist and punched the Milotic with a Reversal move in the face.

It did not do as much damage as it should. A pink light energy gathered around The Mega Milotic the instant after Ohko's attack connected. Before the light became even brighter, Mega Meganium used Protect on her and Mega Stunfisk.

"**Ohko!**" Lily yelled as the Mega unleashed Dazzling Gleam.

After the light of the attack died, Lily put down her arms just in time to see Ohko's body flying off in the opposite direction. The grass type panicked and went towards the downed fighting type.

"**Ohko!? Are you alright!?**" The fighting type was already injured before the fight, now he looked even worse for wear with dirt all over him.

"… **Ow. Gotta punch harder…**" Ohko managed to say as he got back up.

"**Ugh! We need a plan besides charging straight at them!**" Lily scolded as she tried to heal some of his wounds.

Ohko suddenly moved, carrying Lily with his good arm and avoiding an Ice Beam that froze the immediate area the two were in.

"**Oh right… them.**" Lily had momentarily forgotten about the three Megas.

"**Are those two massive idiots?**" Mega Stunfisk laughed cruelly. "**Who on earth forgets their enemyKRRAHK!?**"

A rock smashed him in the head at bullet speeds and knocked him over.

"**OK that does it.**" Ohko stood back a little shakily up from recently throwing said stone. "**I don't mind being called an idiot, but hear this punk: I ain't letting anybody dis my friends!**"

Ohko stumbled a little before Lily caught him. "**OK, you need to tone down the coolness. But still, I guess you do have your moments…**"

Ohko looked at her confusingly. "**I don't get it.**"

"**How bout we just hit them hard and make sure they don't hit us?**"

"**I like the way ya speak, bro!**" Ohko bounced back and charged back at the three Megas, ignoring Lily's screeching about how she was a girl.

[Back with Anto...]

Anto kept running from the agent, trying to think of something, anything that could help turn the tides of the fight in his favor.

Then he saw a stray Ice Beam and Thunderbolt launch itself towards the Ferris Wheel, blasting it and making it explode and rattle all carts. Anto heard muffled screams at that and looked towards the destroyed area.

His heart sank as he saw Mrs. Akio and Hilda both still trapped in the Ferris wheel huddling for cover.

"_Guys!_" Anto mentally screamed out as he avoided Inquisitor and started running towards the Ferris Wheel. "_Meet me at the Ferris Wheel! Quickly!_"

Anto paled as he saw the Ferris wheel start to rip apart, some of the carts already falling. He saw the hostage cart swaying uncontrollably, and the metal supporting them up weakening greatly.

His danger instincts kicked in, forcing him to dive to the right to avoid an Icicle Crash attack from piercing him.

"I've been going about this the wrong way. You're obviously athletic enough to avoid my blows…" Inquisitor darkly said before pointing her gauntlet at him again. "Thunderwave!"

Anto acted fast, and saw a tree he was nearby. He quickly jumped, swinging on the tree branch and making the attack hit the tree bark instead. However a second blast hit him, shocking his nervous system and paralyzing him.

The amnesiac mentally cursed as he fell down face first into the ground and couldn't even make his body do what he wanted it to.

She didn't hesitate a third time, the instant the child fell, Inquisitor brandished a Sacred Sword attack, a noble blade used by the Swords of Justice, to spill innocent blood.

Anto wasn't going to lose hope now, and his faith was rewarded when he saw Ohko being blasted by electricity and getting thrown into Inquisitor and knocking her away.

"_Well not how I expected to be saved, but I'm not complaining._" Anto told himself before he heard another charge of attacks heading his way. He motioned his eyes to see three of Inquisitor's Torren Mega Pokémon all aiming attacks toward him.

The young amnesiac panicked, before a large wave of leaves lifted him up and whisked him away from the explosion fast. The mute quickly focused and saw Lily surfing on leaves she was controlling to move around quickly in the battlefield.

Lily glanced at her trainer before unleashing an Aroma Therapy to free her master of the paralysis effect.

"_Thanks. Can you pick up Ohko?_"

The Grass type didn't say much and simply was able to send a portion of her leaves to grab and take Ohko from the debris.

As soon as she did, the dust cleared and revealed a very ticked off looking Inquisitor. She leered on as Anto and his two Pokémon made their way towards the Ferris Wheel in a platform of magic leaves then she saw three of her Megas coming closer to her.

Anto had seen the cart with Mrs. Akio and Hilda sway violently; they had to act soon. He recalled Hilda was injured last time he had seen her, so he knew he had to hurry up, even with killers breathing down his neck. Since Lily was pretty much using her Magical Leaf attack as some kind of pseudo psychic and construct power, she was able to bring her trainer and Ohko to fly right beside the cart. When Mrs. Akio saw the boy, he motioned her to step away from the door before Ohko ripped it up open.

"She's alright, but I did all that I could to stop her foot from bleeding." Mrs. Akio said as they looked to Hilda. The other woman had ripped up pieces of her clothes to try and lessen the bleeding. It was makeshift at best, but Hilda needed proper medical attention and fast.

Anto mentally communicated to Lily to try and heal her with the same dual move as he glanced out of the cart to where Inquisitor was. He only saw her and her three Megas about to launch a deadly wave of fire at them.

Anto cursed mentally, they were sitting ducks here!

As the beams all let loose and flew towards the failing cart, time slowed down… and something ended up flying right into the beam!

It was Mega Flygon! Takezo and Sentinel had ridden on the Dragon mega again and made him blindly fly into the range of those four attacks! Before the dragon could make contact with the attack, the two other Pokémon ridding on him jumped off and Sentinel allowed both he and Takezo to phase into the metal. Anto acted quickly as he saw the two came in and told everyone to hold on to each other.

As the attacks made contact with Flygon, they all exploded and Anto was able to get everyone huddled together for another Phantom Force attack to get them all away.

Sentinel was able to make them appear on the ground. Anto quickly looked around him to see if everyone was alright and accounted for, which thankfully was a yes.

They weren't out of the woods yet. They still needed to escape. There were those walls surrounding the amusement park that seemed more than likely to be immune to phasing if Anto's luck was any indication so far.

As Anto looked at everyone in his group, his Pokémon, and Mrs. Akio looked shocked at something behind the Amnesiac. Really, hoping it was nothing, the mute boy turned around, only to see two large groups of fake team Plasma members staring him down, being lead by a user with anRaikou and Suicune mask respectively.

"So, the subject be escaping." The one with a Suicune mask stated as six new Mega Pokémon came out from behind him.

"I'd like to see him escape now." The other commander, the one with a familiar looking Mega Medicham and wearing the Raikou mask folded his arms while his own group of megas prepared themselves behind him.

As if to add oil to the flames, Anto looked behind them to where the Ferris Wheel was, only to see Inquisitor walking out of the smoke of her own attack, her Megas looking a little fatigued but it looked as if they were healed of any wounds inflicted by his Pokémon, and looking very, pissed off.

Anto and his Pokémon were surrounded on all sides by the enemy. From being underpowered and outnumbered, now they were without a doubt outclassed and outnumbered 1/10. The young trainer looked to his Pokémon all of them along with the women wondering what he would do next.

"_Sentinel… can you do one more Phantom Force?_"

"**Sure thing—GAH!?**" The Torren Pokémon suddenly fell in pain for no reason. Everyone quickly went to him.

"_Sen, what's wrong!?_" The boy asked, but Sentinel was only writhing in pain.

He looked to Lily for something to heal him with, but the female Pokémon simply shook her head frantically. "**I-I don't know what's with him!**"

"Majus! Warden!" The female Agent yelled and pointed to anto as if he was some kind of monster. "Subject five has already reached Telepathy stages!"

Mrs. Akio and Hilda seemed confused at what she had just screamed, but everyone else seemed to almost… pale… at her words.

"What?" Warden, the Raikou masked man, managed to speak in utter disbelief. "Wait! That was only supposed to manifest if…!?"

"The mission has changed! Kill him, kill him now!" Inquisitor pointed at Anto.

At that command, every one of the fake members pointed their Pokémon all towards them.

The darkened battlefield lit up like a Christmas tree as all Pokémon, even if tired, frantically readied a long range attack towards Anto and his four Pokémon. They were all out to destroy him, and Sentinel was incapacitated by some unknown means, preventing him from escaping using Phantom Force again.

Lily looked around, trying to gather leaves, but she knew that this time she couldn't protect everyone from a blast of this magnitude.

Ohko clenched his fist, darting his gaze around if there was just something he could punch.

Takezo wielded his blade, but had nowhere to point it to. They were in an open field, where could they even find to take cover?

Sentinel continued to double down in pain. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew he was causing everyone grief. If only he was stronger! Stronger to protect everyone, stronger to stop those scientists from ever keeping him down here… why!? Why was he so weak!?

Anto relaxed his shoulders, he oddly felt calm at all this… more resigned.

"… _I gave up once,_" He closed his eyes and turned to face the attacks all charging attacks facing him. "_No. More than once, I know somewhere deep inside, I failed something—or someone else before I lost my memory. But when I met you guys… you gave me courage._"

He clenched his fists before raising his hands out in front of all of them, in front of the majority of the attacks, as if to somehow, someway protect everyone behind him.

That was a lie, the young boy was not resigned. He was resolved to standing his ground in what looked to be his darkest hour.

"_So I'm not giving up! Not again! Even if the world fights against me, I will protect my friends!_"

He shouted that mentally, out loud for even his opponents to hear.

"Dang it, why did we wait!? Hurry up and unleash the attacks!" Warden cried out.

At his command everyone stopped charging and unleashed—

"Yuh words have such unshakeable spirit in them, Anto."

The mute turned around to the familiar voice behind him before all attacks nailed him from every direction.

A loud, deafening, and earthquake like explosion burst from the Amusement park.

"… Crap! That person!" Warden yelled out in frustration. "She saved him!"

"Where did they go!?" Inquisitor yelled. "Find them!"

"We are not hiding, yuh lowlifes brutes."

They entire fake Team Plasma turned their heads toward that clear, loud, but not shouting voice. Valarie, and her Mr. Mime stood right in front of the closed gateway with Anto, his Pokémon, and Mrs. Akio, and Hilda safely behind her.

"_V-Valarie? How did you find me?_" The telepathic mute asked in utter shock.

The Kalos gymleader turned back and smiled sweetly at the boy. "We simply followed the explosions, yuh make quite a lot of them, don't yuh?"

"_Huh, right—wait, what do you mean by, 'We'?_"

He got his answer as the door behind them was torn open by over several psychic and other powerful Pokémon and tossed away like tissue.

"Oh mom!" White cried out as she ran up to her mother, tears of joy came out she was glad to know her mother was safe.

"Anto!" Black called out as he, Wes, Tracey, and Emerald ran up to the roughed up looking boy.

"_Guys?_" Anto once more said in disbelief.

Emerald looked around confused, and was the only one of the four boys to not understand or know about Anto's pseudo psychic powers. "W-What was that?!"

"It's a long story." Black and Wes said at the same time before looking at each other questioningly.

Anto saw everyone, everyone that he had acquainted himself over the week, except Alder and N, coming up to him with relieved looks on their faces, and saying good job for saving Hilda and Mrs. Akio.

But then things turned serious. Each and every one of Anto's friends looked towards the enemy and Fake Team Plasma, each rip and raring to go.

Inquisitor walked up to the other commanders. "… We retreat." She said.

"You sure? We could probably get him." Warden told her.

"Not with the casualties we already have. We'll have to try a different method." She hit something in her gauntlet. "Besides, it's not a total waste."

"Everyone! Flash Burst!" Inquisitor shouted before throwing up her gauntlet and making it explode in light which blinded everyone in the area.

As the light died down, the entire enemy group vanished.

Everyone just stared at the empty field before Pearl broke the silence.

"Yes! We won!" He cheered and Diamond beside him seemed to lazily share his sentiments.

Ruby crossed his arms. "Don't be too comfortable, whoever those guys were just retreated. They were way too organized and coordinated not try again."

"We need to talk about that later," Summer voiced out. "Right now, it's our job to heal all the wounded and tell the populace that it's safe to come out." She specified this as she looked over to Hilda, who was wearing a make shift ripped up clothing to lessen her bleeding foot.

"Summer is right." The Hoenn champion concurred. "The battle is over for now, we must help the city."

It looked like it was going to be a lot of work though the city's been torn up by battle.

With that, the Festival Of Ruin ended as quick as it began, but the chaos it brew would last a life time.

One boy in particular, would forever be changed by this event.

Both mentally…

"Anto?" Wes asked as he looked at the horrified face of the younger boy.

And physically…

The mute bolted back into the destroyed amusement park, as if searching for something desperate. "_Where is it!? I-I thought I had it with me!?_"

Wes and Tracey followed after him, along with all their respective Pokémon.

"Anto!" Tracey called out to the panicking boy and grabbed him in the shoulder to turn him around, and only see tears coming out of his face. "Anto, what's wrong?" Tracey delicately asked.

Anto motioned to his upper chest, just a little below his neck where there was a tear in his shirt that he didn't notice from before while he was running for his life.

"_My necklace… my only clue to my past…. it's gone._"

[Elsewhere…]

Deep within a hidden submarine, the three mysterious commanders were licking their wounds and meeting privately in a enclosed meeting room.

"Wow good Job Inquisitor." Warden complimented as the female agent held the small, jeweled, orbed pendant in her hands. "We didn't completely fail if we got this back then."

"Unfortunately for us, Judicator has a parameter set up on this pendant, only Subject 5's finger print can open it to gain the contents he sealed inside." Inquisitor explained.

Majus scoffed. "It be our tech, can't we be overridein' it?"

"He made a countermeasure for that too. But it's a pain to explain right now. … We need to set up a counter attack soon, after we file a report to the boss."

"Yeah… why is the Seed synchronizing with Subject 5 faster than all the other subjects? It never did anything like this before." Warden wondered out loud.

"..." Inquisitor stayed silent.

Majus was the first to break it after a few seconds, saying the words no one wanted to think. "It be 'awakening' ain't it?"

"All the more reason to stop it." Warden declared solemnly.

* * *

[?]

_I must admit, I am impressed with you._

_Only a true fool would hold firm against such overwhelming odds._

_What? You think that Courage?_

_Ha._

_Courage, stupidity, there is no difference between the two._

_Still, consider me intrigued…_

_Perhaps… maybe, just maybe... you can…_

[?]

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Happy Thanksgiving, hope you enjoyed this little read after Thanksgiving meals have died down. Now we are heading on our way to Christmas. Whooo!**

**This chapter was long. I mean, really, really long. I actually debated a bit on that last part where Anto stares down all those enemies. Around that part, I thought about revealing that the SEED planted in Anto would have some interesting side effects, but I thought against that. Mostly because it felt Deus Ex Machina like to me to have some inner power reveal itself when the odds were beyond against the favor of our little misfit. Instead, I like the idea of Valarie saving him, it makes it seem more… believable, as much as this story is going to get anyway. (Granted, Anto was saved three times in that battle be some form of luck… so…)**

**Next time, we say good bye to some of the OCs that entered in for fun. (Thanks for submitting, you can still submit some more if you'd like, but they might come much, much later in the story. And they might come back during the Unova League arc.)**

**(Extra note: sorry if they weren't as present in this arc, I think I added too many characters. I'll try to do the characters more justice later on.)**

**I wanna go over a few things briefly before these notes ends.**

**Since Pokemon Rangers are the equivalent of some kind of public FBI that are supposedly more effective than the regular police, it would make sense if all Pokémon rangers are trained in self defense. So Summer kicking butt, she actually knows and is the highest self defense student in her year. **

**Another is Dream Wes, once he and Hoppa combine forces, no dream is safe from the dynamic, sarcastic duo.**

**Some plot changes are going to happen very soon in the next chapter, and… **

**Anto finally challenges Elesa for her gym badge.**

**Thank you for reading. Please support this Story by Reviewing, Favorite, Following.**


	26. Ep 26: The Second Half

Episode 26: A Split Path.

Jamie Stanton walked around the streets of Nimbasa City, it looked more or less normal especially considering a few weeks ago, but that wasn't the case.

Unfortunately, due to the 'terrorist' attack—dubbed by the news crew—the Music Festival was cancelled. All money that they had received worldwide went into patching the city back up and making some new renovations along with the construction.

Jamie thought back to even before all of this, when the News in Unova was that there was a bombing in Castelia City. Something told him that there just something big happening in Unova and even events like these were just beginning.

Honestly… the things Jamie had to do…

But now he was on his way to Nimbasa Haven, one of the fanciest hotels in Nimbasa City. There was someone there he wanted to check on.

* * *

Unfortunately for Jamie, that someone he was looking for was (very) sadly at work.

A volunteer work he loathed with all his might, but because of his good nature, he refused to abandon it… even though his mind argued vehemently not to go back into that Arceus forsaken place because he had just recently recovered. Seriously!? He honestly thought that if he had explained to them he was injured they would give him an easier time.

One problem: he couldn't speak to them. And he was in no way getting a piece of written paper near their faces with them thinking he was asking for their autograph.

No trust me; he actually tried using his telepathy this time, but they ignored him. Wait no, they thought it was their own voices giving them inspiration for a new scene. They somehow thought, a young teenage boy's voice… was their own creativity talking to them?

Anto hated showbizz.

This refusing to abandon shtick is really biting him in the back isn't it?

" _Arceus on high. Are you drunk or something? Why do I suffer so?_" The young boy, who still had not completely healed from his injuries, found himself standing on a stage train tracks. Or rather, being tied up to the train tracks while wearing a Mareep costume.

But that wasn't the worst part. Oh no no no no no no.

The two new directors decided to do a little experiment. They asked any volunteer to help them with directing this one scene in the movie. Many applied, of course, willing to show off their artistic ideals. But the two directors found—nay—fell in love with this winner's simply ingenious vision.

A megaphone was just put on.

"Alright, nerds!" Wes screamed from his new temporary director's seat in between the other two main Directors while wearing a fancy black, cinema Beret you would sometimes see on directors. "This scene has got to be nailed perfectly! If any detail is off it will ruin the whole movie!"

"_If I am allowed a will, I hereby bequeath all my earthly possessions to the ground, my only friend in breaking all my falls._" Anto decided then for anyone in the great beyond to hear him.

Wes then spoke out. "First thing first, get that stunt double out of the tracks, he' isn't tall and handsome enough to be the stunt double!"

That surprised Anto a lot. He was actually allowed out of the suit, and then Wes pointed at the guy who once wore the metal suit that punched the mute a while back into his place.

"Hey you double," Wes screamed with his obnoxious mega phone to the amnesiac. "You aren't needed, so go whatever it is you do, but you're not getting paid."

However, Anto did notice the quick wink Wes gave him before shouting out something outlandish, but supposedly brilliant to the director about the rest of the scene.

With that, Anto thought that maybe it is time to do what he wanted to do now.

He very quickly got off the stage/set as the yahoo who replaced him started screaming in panic.

* * *

Anto had recovered quite well after the recent events despite his injuries and the loss of his necklace. His body seemed to heal quicker than normal as if that was some small mercy in that his body could last longer through all the wear and tear he was putting it through in the first place even though it was never intentional.

The festival itself was cancelled after the hostile takeover. All participants took a few days of themselves to gather their bearings before staying to help rebuild, or continuing their journey before this. Arran, Sebastian, Black, The Sinnoh Trio, and the Hoenn trio were such people that had recently left, but did promise in helping Nimbasa City in their own way. Some of the special guests also said their condolences before leaving, but not before at least helping the city in some way before they left.

Speaking off the event, Alder and Marshall came to Anto after things had calmed down a bit and asked what exactly was going on. Apparently Alder and Marshal were used to some psychic abilities since one of the elite four members was a psychic specialist herself, and dabbled a bit in many psychic powers with telepathy being one of them. So when Anto explained to him mentally what had went on, they were mildly calm about someone talking in their minds as a form of communication. The boy explained much as he could, but honestly couldn't recall anything before his journey. Whoever was after him, knew why he was like this and were very desperate to bring him back. Marshall himself suggested that Anto be submitted to the authorities for safety, until Alder intervened.

"Now why would we do that?" Alder privately asked Marshal.

His student looked very surprised at his Master's nonchalant sentence. "This boy is clearly a target to a dangerous and powerful group of people, his life is in peril if he stays out!"

"You forget Marshal, they actually almost had him. The Police, and even us, were almost powerless to stop the mysterious group of terrorists, but this boy, even though out gunned, was able to escape and save the other hostages by him and his Pokémon alone. If our enemy really is Dimension Enterprise, then we really can't send him to the authorities. That enterprise has quiet strings and agents all over the place remember? Anto's best chance at surviving this, his best chance at finding his past and stopping these people, is by continuing his Pokémon journey."

Anto then smiled and told both of them he already had this exact conversation with his friends. Then he told Marshal that he was determined to see this through.

The fighting type elite stayed silent for a second. "You better prove to me your resolve… once you step into the league. I will have a battle reserved for you. Simply make sure you survive long enough to get here."

Anto promised to be there, and promised Marshall that he was going down.

There should have at least someone to watch over him, but Alder thought against that as well. He merely mentioned a certain silver haired boy wearing a blue long coat, taking charge in saving his 'friend' in the events prior.

"With friends like that, the boy is already in good hands. We're just going to have to take a risk and gamble on him." Alder explained.

After that, Aster and Summer had some things to talk out. Apparently some Pokémon Rangers were sent here afterward and he hadn't really seen them since. He wondered what was going on between them now, but he couldn't help but feel something was going to change soon. He didn't know what.

So with this all in mind, Anto decided that perhaps, with his new free day, and now wearing his first old get up since the one he received from Valarie was torn up—the old Union Jack shirt and black and white jacket he originally had—he would finally challenge the gym of this city.

"**So, with the gym destroyed, where exactly will we have our battle?**" Takezo asked while standing on Anto's shoulder.

"_I was told she had been meaning to change the gym locations for a while now…_" Anto answered back before looking to Sentinel walking beside him, who seemed less lively than usual… even though he was a ghost.

"_You alright Sen?_"

"**What… what happened to me?**" Sentinel asked.

He was referencing during the last fight with everyone cornering them, at the absolute worst timing, Sentinel fell to his knees and couldn't move properly, let alone drag them all into the Phantom Force attack and into safety. It almost seemed like his body was just failing on itself. Not only that, the delta Pokémon was feeling an immense amount of pain during it. If it wasn't for Valarie saving them then…

"_I don't really know. When Nurse Joy took a look at you, despite being a Pokémon she had never seen before, she said you over all looked fine. Maybe it's something deeper, like your DNA? You said it yourself you were born in a lab._"

"**Hmph. Even when I'm finally out, I can't escape…**" The ghost dragon skeleton muttered.

Takezo and Anto shared a look. What could they say about this?

"_Hey Sen, whatever happens, we'll be there for you. I won't forget my promise to you._" Anto told him.

That seemed to do the trick as Sentinel's flame grew just a bit brighter. "**Thanks Anti. … I wanna fight this battle.**" Sentinel said.

"_Alright thanks. Having a dragon type in an electric gym should increase my chances of winning!_" Anto thought excitedly. However there was one little problem to all of this. "_But I still have no idea where Elesa is right about now._"

Anto wondered what to do until he noticed Takezo suddenly jump off his shoulder. He didn't have time to react to that because he got run into and blindsided by someone before getting tackled down into the concrete.

"_That's not fair…_" Anto thought and whined to himself before his senses came back. He tried to see what punk had the guts to do—"_Bianca?_" Anto managed to recognize the blonde clumsy girl on top of him, and was surprisingly close to his face now that he thought about it.

The girl groaned herself before realizing she was on the boy with familiar amber eyes. "Anto?" She asked before another voice called from behind her.

"Bianca! Get back here!"

The two quickly got up, as soon as that happened, Bianca yelped as she looked back and hid behind Anto. Takezo, who had jumped off before the boy was tackled, walked up to his trainer along with Sentinel.

There was a slightly pudgy man running up to them looking quite peeved. As soon as he saw Bianca he pointed at her.

"There you are! We are going home now!"

"I don't want to dad!" Bianca yelled as she grabbed onto Anto's jacket hard, surprising the boy to see that this man was Bianca's dad. They looked nothing alike…

"Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to go on a Pokémon journey!? Even more so with recent events!? Nimbasa city went dark during the hostile takeover! No one in the city is even talking about it!" The dad screamed, and gasped for breath, as if he had been chasing his daughter for quite some time.

Anto briefly went over what the pudgy dad said. Apparently, during the hostile takeover, the fake Team Plasma cut off Nimbasa City from the entire world and made their commands known only through the city. The rest of the world only seemed to realize they were attacked when the Champions and League members revealed what happened inside.

That threw them all for a panic for sure.

"But I don't wanna leave! I'm having fun with my friends and my Pokémon!" Bianca yelled out.

"It's too dangerous—you boy, get out of my way!" The dad pointed at Anto.

"No! Anto please stay!" Bianca shouted back, completely ignorant of how close she was to Anto.

"_Bianca, I'm mute, not deaf!_" He inwardly thought to himself. Why did Bianca always have to shout his poor ears off?

"Who is this boy?!" Suddenly the dad's anger found a new medium to lash out against: a new male friend that his daughter did not talk about.

Anto really didn't want to spend his day off like this.

"He's my friend, Anto! He's a cool guy, he even drove us off a cliff from a stolen motorcycle and we didn't get hurt that much!"

Anto's eyes widened. Why did she say the absolute worst thing to say?

"You what!?" The father looked on to the boy with something akin to murder.

"Then he drove off into an evil group of trainers and crashed that same bike into a row of machines that exploded like a Fourth of July party!" No longer scared, but for some reason now excited retelling a short version of Anto's misadventure some time ago, Bianca adamantly exclaimed this fact while Anto could only watch on in horror. He could have spoken telepathically to them, but he didn't want to always rely on this. Yes, he was regretting this decision greatly.

"That's it! We are going home, and we are going home now!" The dad roared and stepped towards the girl.

Anto was quite honestly scared, who was he to get in the way of a raging father? He felt like one of those television boyfriends—even though he definitely wasn't Bianca's—that met with their dream girl's nightmare dad.

But the way Bianca was clinging on to his shirt desperately as her father stepped forward… Anto inwardly sighed before steeling himself and stepping forward, making the dad stop right in front of him.

"Look boy, this is a family business! So step away!" The dad pointed and poked the mute's chest very hard.

Anto shook his head and stood his ground, he was to be honest scared again, but then again, his friend needed help.

"What was that?!" The father looked very angry, making Anto feel very nervous. He actually winced and stepped back, but struggled to keep his composure.

Bianca felt the boy in front of her step back and start to shiver as her dad Intimated him. "Dad, I want to continue on my Journey!" Bianca said adamantly, stepping out from behind Anto. "And I… and I… will battle you for my right to continue!" She declared.

The dad seemed to calm down and huff at the challenge. "If that is what it will take, then I accept!" he said before he released his breath and gasped for air again. "On second thought, we will have our battle later tonight at eight! You know I have a bad condition if I exercise too hard."

"You did bring your blood pressure medicine, right dad?" Bianca asked worryingly, all previous emotions at the conversation a while ago dropped at the sight of her father's health.

"I got it. I got it. I just let it at my motel. The dang place was sure expensive…" The dad said before leaving, but not before giving one last glare at Anto before limping away.

Anto exhaled after he realized he was actually holding his breath for some time during that fiasco.

"Anto!" The girl begged and came uncomfortably close to the boy. "I need your help! Please train me!"

The boy felt himself pressured when Bianca came up to him with the most pleading eyes that he ever saw.

He just wanted his badge so he could finally get out of this city! And this was supposed to be his day off from those blasted and evil directors who keep asking for too much of him!

You know what? Anto had enough of this crap placed on to him, he was going straight to find Elsea, win her challenge and leave this city at long last!

In actuality, Anto slouched, silently groaned, and then nodded at Bianca's request.

"Oh thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you!" The girl squealed in delight and hugged the boy. "I don't stand a chance a gains my dad the way I am! You gotta teach me how you did those cool battling techniques your Pokémon did during the festival!"

Anto agreed by simply nodded his head. He started to take out his old note pad and pen before writing out to Bianca that they needed a spot to train.

Bianca was eager and quickly ran ahead of Anto, claiming she knew the perfect spot to train.

Anto watched ahead as the girl ran before he could truly gather his thoughts together. Why hadn't he just declined this? Why was he going to spend the day helping someone else train rather than him taking on the badge?

He complained all he wanted to, deep down, the amnesiac boy knew why he had offered to help her even with his entire mind and body screaming to get away.

The amnesiac had too much of a caring heart.

* * *

[Meanwhile…]

Elsewhere in the Police Station, Summer was sitting down on a seat with Flow laying on her lap.

Since Aster was here, there was a lot of things she had to explain to the Ranger HQ: from the MIA status of both Jack and Keith, to the possibility that Dimension Enterprise may be hiding more secrets than they ever let on. The drastic change of situation made the Ranger Union recall all of their members and formulate a better strategy before moving out.

However, this meant one main thing: Summer was going to leave the gang.

She had the most information as to what was going on, so it was most likely her to brief everything she could to the higher up so they would better understand the situation.

In best case scenario, she would be gone for a while and be sent back to Unova. Worst case, she would get sent elsewhere far from Unova to truly confirm her theories she made with her friends, but all situations meant she had to leave Unova, immediately.

"**We aren't staying with Anto and the others?**" Flow asked softly, not wanting to separate from all her friends.

Summer smiled sadly, and petted Flow's head softly. "I wish we would, Flow, I really do wish we can. But… the only way to help Anto, and prevent something like this from happening again is to do our job elsewhere. And…" Summer thought back to how Jack and Keith were injured, how she was sent flying, and all her events leading up to this moment, focusing more on the parts where she struggled, and her friends she met during this adventure.

"I need to become stronger. So I can protect them and catch them when they fall." Summer decided. Even after all of this, she still felt somewhat responsible from the very beginning of all of this. But that would change; she was going to do all that she could to right her wrongs. "You can stay with Anto if you want, Flow."

"**I don't wanna leave you Summer. I'm staying with you.**" The delta Pokémon told her.

"Thank you… but now what do I tell everyone?" Summer said.

"Summer?"

The Pokémon Ranger turned her head. She blinked at surprise to see that person in the station.

"White?"

* * *

[Back with Anto.]

Anto and Bianca were out in the park. All of Anto's and Bianca's Pokémon were out. Besides Anto's irregular four Pokémon, Bianca's party consisted of a Dewott, a Lampent, a Meinfoo, and a Gothorita.

The eight Pokémon met and greeted one another and introduced themselves to each other. Anto actually noted that her Pokémon party was actually pretty solid and had a lot of potential. He paid attention to how his Pokémon seemed to have a 'counterpart' in Bianca's Pokémon.

Dewott was a close range user, using his Razor Shell as a blade much as Takezo would, and was actually inspired by Takezo when the normal type demonstrated his sword play all the way back against team Snagem.

Lampent, the ghost and fire Pokémon, seemed to connect somewhat to Sentinel, being attracted to Sentinel's ghost flame and asking questions that Sentinel himself had no ideas.

Ohko was well, Ohko. Meinfoo seemed dumbfounded at the other fighting type's character, but could see the strength and battle perception Ohko had from exchanging a few friendly punches.

Gothorita and Lily seemingly clicked and seemed to be talking about what looks good and how sometimes their friends were a bit much.

Looking at all of them, he wondered what exactly he could do to make Bianca a better trainer in time of her father. From what Bianca said, her father had this powerful Darmanitan that could go into Zen mode. It was his only Pokémon, but from her stories, it must really be powerful, maybe more so than the one he fought against in that team fight with N.

Looking over, besides Mienfoo, most of Bianca's Pokémon had the potential to at least handle her father's Darmanitan.

Bianca was reading what was on the paper Anto had just given her after looking over her team.

"Bianca, I'm going to need to know a bit more information before training. So let's battle four on four." The blonde girl read before brightening up. "Oh! OK! Come on guys it's time to battle!"

…

The battle… umm… Anto was at a loss for words.

… Besides, you know by now, being mute.

Bianca had the same amount of badges as Anto, and Anto himself thought he needed to get stronger in order to survive out here in Unova, but he was honestly surprised at how… one sided he and his Pokémon defeated Bianca. He actually felt kind of bad. I mean, for once he should be happy he could actually win easily in his journey, but right now, it made him feel like a jerk.

Or maybe it was simply because his style of battling was completely different from that of Bianca? Bianca made a lot of rash commands to her Pokémon while her opponents, the mute, was more used to a much more analytical and defensive style of battling that helped him survive against stronger opponents. There was also the glaring fact that Bianca didn't really seem to be in the wavelength of her Pokémon. She called out moves as she saw fit, instead of considering which Pokémon moves would be comfortable for her Pokémon's own style of fighting, and seemed to ignore what their opponent was trying to do.

When Anto battles with his Pokémon, he lets them do what they want in a fight and adapts the strategy for them to move and counter their opponents' moves. Bianca relied on overpowering and outlasting her opponents and was rather lacking in adapting to her opponents.

Speaking off, Anto's four Pokémon stared at their sparing partners all sprawled on the floor who were all tired from their solo spars.

"**Hmm,**" Takezo spoke out, making his other three allies look at him. "**So this is what it's like on the over powered side. … It is less satisfying than I imagined.**"

Lily elbowed Takezo lightly, as if to shut him up for saying something insensitive.

Bianca fell to her knees after somberly recalling all her Pokémon. "Oh who am I kidding? I can't beat my dad. I'm doomed." She sadly said before sitting on a bench and burying her face into her hands.

The mute sighed silently before calling back his Pokémon. He didn't know what to do at this situation, he could try to cheer her up, but he couldn't exactly speak, and mentally linking with her now just seemed… out of place. He didn't want to always rely on it.

Instead, Anto just sat on the opposite side of the bench form her.

He didn't know that right beside him, Bianca was having an inner turmoil.

"… How do you all get to do that?"

Bianca's sudden words made Anto look at the girl in surprise. She removed her hands from her face and simply stared at the ground, her face devoid of all energy she had prior to all of this which made her look more pitiable. But what did she mean by that?

Bianca actually looked somber, tired, and sad before leaning on the bench and slouching hard on it. "I can't believe it. Even you are really amazing, Anto. You, White, Black, Cheren… everyone around me has this amazing skill and talent with Pokémon, and then there's me."

The air turned quiet for the two of them. Bianca then continued on.

"Black is aiming to become the Pokémon Champion, Cheren is aiming to be a stronger trainer, and White is just a talented battler over all and is already working in a high end job behind her mother! Even you!" She looked at Anto with eyes that just screamed 'why?' at him. "I was here when those terrorists attacked. When things were horrible, you still went along—you even were able to hold your own and survive against them despite all the odds thrown at you, and survive!"

After yelling, she slouched, as if losing what little energy she had left in screaming. She then spoke softly. "And then… there's me… bumbling around just chasing Pokémon I like. I feel… left behind by everyone…"

After finally saying this, she folded her knees and huddled into a ball form, hiding herself to wallow in misery.

Anto looked at her reflectively for a minute before scribbling something down on his notepad.

Bianca heard that and looked up at Anto looking to be writing a lot, her eyes were somewhat misty, but she dried them as Anto gave her his notepad again.

"… First off all, what happened to me was an accident. I didn't want any of that to happen at all," She started, skipping over the fact that 'any' was heavily underlined in his paper. "Second, I get where you're coming from…" She trailed off a bit looking at the brown eyed boy who was urging her to continue.

"I don't really know much about myself, and the more I try to learn, the more dangerous things seem to get. It's coming to the point where I don't think I want to know who I was anymore and maybe just live out my life in hiding. I envy other people for actually having their memories, for actually having fun on their adventures while I seemingly have to put my life on the line every week…" Bianca read out that part in surprise before looking towards Anto and taking a break from reading what he said. "Anto… I-I didn't know."

The boy simply smiled reassuringly and motioned her to continue reading.

Bianca blinked but continued on reading what the mute had written down. "I'm also afraid. Afraid of what will happen to me once I learn about my past. What will happen to me right now? But what keeps me going is the question: did I leave anyone behind in my past? Are they still waiting for me somewhere? And are they wishing I was safe or even alive? The thought of them being sad over me… I don't know why, but it hurts me a lot more than all the falls, the physical pain, and the crap I deal with every day…." Bianca paused and looked ahead at what Anto wrote down. "… But most of all, my Pokémon and my friends are all enjoying spending time with me, and I can't bring myself to end this for myself without thinking about them. Bianca, it's really your choice if you want to continue your journey or not, but I don't think you should compare others to yourself, no one can ever be you, and you can never be them. So Bianca, are you really content with letting it all end like this?"

After finishing reading, Bianca stared at the notepad, but she wasn't quite looking at it. She was deep at thought and wondering what she was going to do.

She closed her eyes for a second, inhaling deeply… and then breathing out.

Her eyes snapped open, revealing that she was determined now more than ever.

The blonde girl stood up and looked fiercely at the mute sitting next to her and handed him back his notepad. "Anto! Let's go to the Pokémon center for my friends then we'll try training again! I have an idea… and I don't want to leave my journey! There's still things I need to learn and my dad needs to learn that!"

Anto smiled and nodded. It looked like she had her answer.

* * *

[Elsewhere]

Tracey had just finished his call with Professor Oak. He stayed silent for a second before thinking things through.

"…" He stayed silent for a second, staring at the video phone he had just finished before he dialed down a number. "Hello? Is this Kalos? Could you please send a message to all Kalos Pokémon Centers? If a trainer by the name of Ash Ketchum appears, please tell him to call back someone named, Tracey Sketchit as soon as possible. Thank you."

He closed the phone, but by now there was still one more call to make.

"Hello?"

"… Why bonjour, Mr. Sketchit!" The professor at the opposite end of the line greeted with a smile. "To what do I owe this call from Professor Oak's assistant?"

"Professor Sycamore. This is urgent. What can you tell me about Mega Evolution and Mega Pokémon?"

* * *

[Later that night.]

"Anto, I'm nervous! Maybe this was a bad idea after all!" Bianca paced back and forth in worry at the arena she and her father were supposed to meet.

The mute boy simply sighed and walked up to Bianca, grabbed her shoulders, and then motioned her to breath in… and breath out.

Bianca copied the boy. "OK, calm down… I can do this… you and your Pokémon have been helping."

"Bianca!"

The two young teens turned over to see Bianca's father, coming in with a strange, over the top red scarf and looking as if he was some kind of poser superhero without a mask or cape.

The dad pointed almost demonically at the two of them. "You! Get away from my daughter!"

The two looked at each other before realizing that they were close with Anto putting his hands on her shoulders. They both took a step back in a flustered state.

"Bianca, it's time to finally go home." Her dad said, catching his breath a bit. However, Bianca turned to her father with a serious look on her face and took out a Poké Ball.

"Dad!" Bianca declared pointing to him. "We're going to battle and if I win, you let me on my journey! That was our promise, and I'm not backing down!"

"Tch! Stubborn little… do you have any idea… fine! The battle will be one on one! But know this Bianca, I will not hold back, and I'm making sure you come home where it's safe!" The father shouted as he took out his Poké Ball.

Bianca looked back at Anto, who simply nodded and stepped back. Bianca stepped into the battlefield, and then threw her chosen fighter. "Come on out, Dewott!"

Bianca's starter Pokémon appeared on the field, seemingly ready for the fight at hand.

Bianca's dad did a very stylish and over the top posing before throwing out his Pokémon. "Go Red Flash Darmanitan!"

'Well that's a long nickname.' Anto sweat dropped at the feat.

Still, despite the flashy name, the Pokémon Bianca's dad pulled out looked much larger than the regular Darmanitan. It was obviously better raised and must have been with his trainer for a long time. Perhaps when he was in his prime, Darmanitan and his partner were a force to truly be reckoned with.

'Come on Bianca, Dewott, show us what you got.' Anto folded his arms and looked back at the girl. Takezo jumped to his shoulder, also wanting to see how well this would all work out.

"Dewott, Water Gun!" Bianca pointed out in command. Her evolved starter inhaled before unleashing a stream of water jetting towards her father's Pokémon.

"Red Flash Darmanitan, set yourself ablaze!" Her father countered.

The night became brighter as the fire ape Pokémon spontaneously combusted with a mighty flame. As soon as the Water Gun hit, steam exploded into the battlefield.

"Wh-what?!" Bianca cried out.

Anto got tense. Her father was a much better battler than the mute originally thought he was. Instead of dodging the attack, he withstood it and erected a barrier of fire for the water attack to hit and create a steam cloud throughout the battlefield. The flames were obviously strong enough to douse a water attack of Dewott's caliber, but the key part of this strategy was the fact how Bainca's Dad was using the gap between experience against his own daughter. The steam clouds blocked vision that was already impaired during the night, and both Dewott and Bianca have been taken in surprise at this tactic rather than quickly adapting to the situation, but this meant her father and his Darmanitan must already repositioning themselves to counter attack from the smoke while their opponents are disoriented.

The amnesiac's fears were realized as Darmanitan burst out of the smoke and rammed into Dewott from a blind side. The water type held on though, and slid a good distance from the attack which greatly slowed down the momentum.

Bianca panicked and glanced towards Anto, who just gave a small motion to breathe in and out. The blonde trainer nodded gratefully once before looking back into the battlefield.

"Darmanitan, Superpower!" Her dad called out as Darmanitan rushed over to the smaller Water type with his fist glowing with mystic power.

"Stand your ground Dewott! Just like Takezo did!" Bianca called out.

At the mention of the name, Dewott closed his eyes before recalling a previous conversation he had with the uncanny swords master.

"**How are you so strong with a blade!?**" Bianca's Dewott recalled saying before he motioned both his arms towards his shells.

"**That is your first false assumption**," Takezo's voice resounded in Dewott's head as he snapped his eyes open to see Darmanitan readying to launch his fist right for him. "**I am not strong, I simply continue to better myself as time flows on.**"

"**Better myself?**" Dewott tilted his head slightly as the attack zoomed into him, dodging the fist and the energy surrounding it. He grabbed both his shells and swung them towards the enclosing Darmanitan, igniting both shells into Razor Shells and cross slashing the chest of the fire ape as his motion made him fly past.

The Darmanitan flinched from the attack and put a hand on his chest where Dewott hit him, but despite the critical hit that was supposed to be a type advantage, Darmanitan still held on, rather it looked he was ticked off.

"**I suppose it is best to be simple.**"

Bianca's Dad called out. "Rest! Turn into Zen mode and use Psychic!" The Darmanitan quickly retracted, his fur complete changed color, and fell asleep. Whatever damage they had managed to pull was already healing, but now there was a psychic glow to Darmanitan before he shot out a blast of psychic blast towards Dewott.

"Dodge!" Bianca yelled and her Starter quickly ran and avoided being caught in psychic energy.

"Keep blasting!" Her father countered.

Bianca put laser focus on the timing of the attacks as her Dewott kept dodging the attacks.

"**I can only give you some basic stances to practice off, but your Mentality must change know if you wish to truly be strong.**"

After Dewott dodged another attack, Darmanitan started charging again for another psychic attack. She waited for this, paying close attention to how Anto relied on split second counter attacks before unleashing heavy combos on his enemies. She was going to pull this off, everything else, she would trust her Pokémon.

It was the half second just after Darmanitan aimed and released his attack.

Bianca did not look deterred in the slightest. "Now Dewott! Water Gun!"

"**What do you mean?**"

The water type slid, still moving and avoided the blast of telekinetic energy once more, but this time inhaled and blasted a stream of water towards his enemy.

"Darmanitan, Psychic on the Water Gun!" Bianca's dad called out.

The sleeping ape, while slightly caught off guard, was able to power up a quick enough Psychic to freeze the water mid air before touching him.

Bianca's dad smiled.

"**Each fight, even practice, you must give your everything. Enter each fight as if it were your last, and there will be no second chance.**"

"Now! Go all out, Dewott!" Bianca quickly cried.

Right beneath the captured water attack, Dewott came sliding under the attack with both shells primed with Razor Shell attacks.

Bainca's dad, and by some sense Darmanitan, was surprised to see Dewott already so close. Did that mean they expected the Water Gun attack to fail and followed up on it while the Psychic attack was used on it!?

With his partner cheering him on, Dewott slashed Darmanitan with both of his blades.

"**Each time you swing, pour your soul and entire being into them. Make all your hits with your last, pushing every ounce of strength and will into them.**"

And Dewott continued slashing, dancing around the large ape as he did so. Darmanitan long dropped his first Psychic that was holding the Water Gun and tried to blast him with another Psychic, but Dewott, simply side stepped to either side, or even jumped above the sleeping fire type, just to slash at him and weaken his focus over the attack.

Each strike looked like it wasn't doing much, but the longer Dewott moved around unpredictably, after each strike, it looked like Darmanitan was starting to lose his psychic hold on even making himself levitate.

"**For I… tend to have that situation handed to me more than I would admit.**" That was the last thing Taekzo told him with a smile before their training ended.

Dewott gave one giant vertical slash with both of his Razor Shells.

Bianca's father panicked as he saw his pokemon start to waver from an attack like that. "That's it! Red Flash Darmanitan, wake up and enflame yourself again!"

"Back off Dewott!" Bianca acted fast at the command of her father.

The water type backed off as another explosion of flames burst from Darmanitan, waking him up and revealing the fire type looked quite injured. However, Dewott himself was looking quite fatigued, seemingly giving much effort into that assault.

"Why do you fight so hard Bianca? I only care for your safety! I don't want to see you get hurt!" Bainca's dad cried out.

"Dad… I know you care about me. I know that you just want me to be safe, but I need to grow up and face the world, even if it is dangerous! I have to grow up and live my life and find my own way! Dewott, end it! Razor Shell!"

"No! Darmanitan Flare Blitz! Don't let her win!"

The two Pokémon burst with every last ounce of their energy before rushing at each other. Two opposing lights, solid, glowing blue and brilliant, wild red clashed at each other!

Then both lights died down in an instant as both Pokémon passed by each other.

The air around the field became silent as everyone stared at the two unmoving Pokémon.

Dewott fell first, before catching himself and falling into his knee, gasping for breath.

Darmanitan turned around—before he fell into the ground unconscious.

"I… I lost…?" Bianca's dad stared in shock. "Wh-When did my little girl get so…?"

"Dad."

Bainca's dad saw Bianca had come in front of him, Dewott was still on the ground, but seemingly being watched by Anto and a rather proud Takezo.

"… Alright you win. I remember our promise—" Bianca's dad was interrupted when the blonde girl ran up and embraced her dad.

"Dad, I know you really are scared for me and are so worried for me, but I made a promise to Black, Cheren, White, and Professor Juniper that I would journey with them and meet wonderful Pokémon!" She exclaimed with an elated look in her face. Describing about all her friends and their goals gave her joy, just being with them gave her joy, and she didn't want that to end yet. "And… I want to see it through not for myself, but for them. I'm not just taking this journey for me, I'm taking it for them, my Pokémon… and you. I don't want you to think I'm being selfish and pushing you away…" She said softly.

Her dad seemed to listen to her. He hugged her closely back. "But you're my little girl… I don't want you to get hurt…"

Bianca let go and placed a hand gently on her father's cheek. "Dad, I will always be your little girl, no matter how old I get that will never change." She smiled sweetly. "But I know I need to face the world, or how can I grow up just staying in one place my whole life?"

Her father listened to her closely, before giving a bitter smile. "Seriously, when did my daughter become such a wonderful woman without me noticing? Arceus…" He started sniffing while his eyes started to get watery at such a thought. "I feel so old…" He hugged his daughter tighter.

Bianca returned the hug and leaned her head into her father's stomach. "I had some amazing friends. … And an even cooler and super awesome dad to help me out."

"You bet your poffins your father was super cool and awesome!" The father laughed and smiled despite tears still coming down his face. He broke off the hug and started posing as he did a while ago before the battle, but this time the movements weren't over exaggerated, they were steady and true. "I'm the Red Flash! One of the best trainers in Unova! And my daughter will be a million times better than me!"

Bianca smiled back, tears starting to come up from her and in honor of her dad, she did the same pose as he did. "I will be better! And I promise I won't ever forget that… and I-I promise… I won't make you regret letting me g-going on *Sniff* t-this j-journey!"

"Hahaha… please stop Bianca, you're embarrassing me with that pose!" The father managed to say despite almost previously choking for trying to poorly hide more of his tears.

"I-I'm embarrassing!?" She stopped and walked back to her dad. "I always feel like dying when you do it!" She wined but was still so genuinely happy.

The two of them laughed and cried. They laughed and cried in each other's arms.

Anto looked on, with both Dewott and Darmanitan watching on his opposite sides. Takezo was standing nearby Dewott and watching him.

It was touching, how hard the two were pretending to ignore their tears. It was sort of dorky and adorable for them. But it also gave a slight pang in Anto's heart. Where his parent's alive? And most importantly, did they even love him?

…

The two family members finally dried their tears. "Well," Bianca's dad started. "I was so focused on this fight, I forgot to get dinner. How about I treat you to a meal, sweetie?"

"Sure thing dad!" Bianca answered before looking towards Dewott. "Oh wait! Dewott! You were fantastic! But we gotta get you healed up before dinner! Come on, Return!" She said as she recalled the injured Pokémon.

However, Bianca still ran up to Anto and gave him a hug. The boy was caught by surprise by this act and blushed hard.

"Thank you Anto." She told him before running away with a brilliant smile on her face towards the Pokémon Center.

Takezo was about to make a comment, but decided for once to let this one slide.

For now.

Anto was snapped out of his stupor when Bainca's dad walked up to him.

"… Anto right?" The dad asked since he must have heard his daughter somehow.

The boy simply nodded with some unease.

"Please, take care of my daughter." He asked simply. Anto visibly relaxed and nodded solemnly.

"You don't talk a lot do you?" The father asked.

Anto shook his head.

"Well considering her three other friends, I suppose that's somewhat of an improvement." He mused. "But please, watch over her for me as well?"

Anto nodded again, as if to say that he was giving this promise his iron vow.

The father seemingly got that and recalled his Darmantian. "… I am getting old… this is the worst feeling ever."

With that he left the mute and his Patrat all alone under the night sky.

When the father left, Anto turned to Takezo. "_I can't believe even in a day off, I still can't relax._"

The smaller Pokémon simply smiled and folded his arms. "**You do not sound even slightly disappointed.**"

The amber eyed boy looked to the skies above him were the stars where shining brightly.

"_No. I suppose I'm not._"

[Later]

Wes sat in the living room of White's main suite after hearing everyone say their peace.

It was then that Anto came in, just wanting to go to bed and try again in reaching for Elsea's badge. The young teen was quite surprised to see many people here. Tracey, White, Summer, Wes, and even Jamie were all in the living room as if they were talking to each other.

Not to mention all of their Pokémon were out.

However the air in the room told Anto there was something more going on. He took out his Pokémon and slowly walked towards them.

"_Uhh did I miss something?_" Anto asked all of them.

Jamie looked surprised at Anto's mental telepathy, but only mildly. "Oh you guys were telling the truth about that."

Anto stepped towards all of them. "_Oh, so you know about this Jamie… but seriously why is everyone looking at me like that?_"

Wes, White, and Jamie looked towards one of the couches were both Tracey and Summer sat. The two turned to each other before Tracey sighed and spoke first.

"Anto, there is no easy way to say this. But I… Summer and I are leaving."

Everyone waited for the boy to move after he said that. He blinked several times, but didn't seem to even flinch before he finally said one word.

"… _What…?_"

Tracey sighed again. "Do you remember those commanders that attacked us? They used strange Pokémon that were greatly powered up?" Tracey continued on since Anto didn't seem to focus on that particular subject. "I had a feeling why this was all familiar, then I recalled Professor Oak was working with Professor Sycamore in Mega Evolution. That was what gave all of their Pokémon unbelievable power. … And by learning more about it, I think there might be a lead to defeating, or finding out if they really are Dimension Enterprise. … So… I'm going to Kalos in order to find out as much as I can, or find a clue in how those people who tried to kidnap you were able to mega evolve over a dozen Pokémon at one instant."

Anto stayed silent but turned towards Summer and Flow.

"Sorry Anto. But it looks like I'm leaving for the same reasons Tracey is." She said before explaining that Ranger Union is calling everyone back and that how she was needed in assessing the situation.

After another pause, the mute boy asked, "_When are you leaving?_"

"Tonight." The two of them said. They both had planes later this night.

"We were just waiting for you and to say our goodbyes." Summer spoke.

Anto took a slow sit down and looked to Wes sitting next to him.

"_And you?_"

The thief from Orre shrugged his shoulders. "I'm apparently free of house arrest that never existed. Might as well follow you around otherwise it'll be too boring for me to wander about."

Wes' voice was unusually indifferent and emotionless than usual. It looked like even he was troubled by this despite his kept up nonchalant attitude.

"But we'll come back. I'm sure of it." Summer said and then Tracey later agreed solemnly.

"You better keep those promises," Wes said. "I'd be awfully ticked if I find either of you broke that promise."

"This coming from a thief?" Summer teased.

"Hey, I made that darn promise of not stealing Pokémon while under you."

"What?" Jamie and White looked questioningly at Wes.

"Not important," The silver haired snagger pointed to Summer. "I'll just be quite ticked to know I made a promise to someone who doesn't keep their own promises." He scoffed and looked away.

Summer gave a small smile. "I'll keep that in mind, criminal scum."

"Oh shut it nerd. You still owe me for fixing your styler."

"Why do I owe you if you pick pocketed all that money!?"

"You have no proof I did such a thing." Wes responded calmly.

Tracey and Anto smiled at the banter between the two.

Then the mute boy looked over to Jamie. "_Jamie, I gotta ask, why are you here?_"

The boy looked around shyly when everyone looked at him. "I just wanted to see if you were alright. You were pretty out of it after the attack."

"_Yeah…_" Anto looked over to his chest where there was no longer his necklace that he wore almost every day. It was the only clue to his past and now it was gone. … What could it have even been? He felt emptier without it hanging from his neck.

Meanwhile, White watched as the air in the room turned silent again.

White then clapped her hands together, catching everyone's attention. "OK, before you guys leave, I at least have to order room service! Kalos and Almia aren't short flights in anyway."

Everyone went with White in ordering whatever they wanted for room service. The meals were good, and some of the Pokémon said their goodbyes to each other while meeting up with Jamie's Pokémon: A Slyveon, Golurk, and a rather cocky Fletchinder, but at least no one left that night in a bad note.

[Elsewhere]

"The fact that you all failed to re capture Subject 5 is… problematic," He sighed heavily. "But not salvageable at least."

"I apologize sir. I thought we made the necessary precautions, I wasn't expecting his own Pokémon and everyone else to do what they did."

"It's fine Inquisitor. Right now it is important for us to make preparations. You cut off Nimbasa from the world, but that doesn't mean the black market world didn't notice your little stunt."

[Meanwhile.]

"You wanted to see me Lysandre?"

"Alain, yes. Please watch this video. It was taken from some of our agents during the Nimbasa Music Festival black out."

"Why are you showing… wait… those are!?"

"Yes. It appears that Sycamore's studies are already being misused. Our greatest fear has been realized Alain. Sooner or later, these people will undo everything your teacher tried to build."

"Grr! Who are these people!?"

"I do not know. They almost appeared out of nowhere. However, our spies found out that they are after a boy."

"A boy?"

"Yes. Let me show you a picture of this boy. The users of Six Mega Evolution were very clear in getting this one boy out of thousands of people … If you can find this boy in Unova and bring him here, we might have an idea of who these people are."

Alain carefully caressed his mega ring. "I will hunt him down. I am not going to let these thieves destroy what Sycamore has built!"

[In another place.]

"How interesting… whoever these attackers were all aimed for one unremarkable brat."

"Perrrsian…."

"Hmm. … Domino! Make a call to Cassidy and Mitch. There's a certain boy in Unova who needs to be introduced to Team Rocket…"

* * *

**{Author's Note.}**

**I… I am a dirty, dirty liar. I promised you all Anto would battle Elesa, but when I wrote this chapter, I couldn't write it. I'm sorry. **

**Also, we sadly have to say goodbye to Summer and Tracey... aww... but they'll be back! Terminator Style!**

**... That's actually a good idea...**

**The reason why I did this was to remake the cast a bit so that I could make the story open for more characters. For example, one of the OCs I was given had a very, very interesting story that I couldn't ignore. (you know who you are and thank you for this OC!)**

**So Next chapter should hopefully be Elesa versus Anto before he heads out to the fifth badge!**

**(Oi, 25 plus chapters in and I'm just getting to the fourth badge? Well this'll be fun.)**

**Anyway though. Happy Holidays to all my readers! Since it's almost or going to be vacation time, I'm going to try and make my new year's resolution a little early and write more for you guys! (But I have to be fair and also write my other stories for my other fans.)**

**But if there is anyone who has finals, you could mention it either review or PM. I will gladly wait a week before unloading all the fun stories I have planned for this month.**

**Thanks for reading. Please Show your support by reviewing, and following and favoriting.**


	27. Ep 27: Dreaming Obscurity

Episode 27: For Those That Dream

* * *

"Hoopa?" Anto asked after he felt himself trapped in a dream sequence again.

However this was different, the amnesiac was no longer within a bright and sunny beach, rather he looked to be in a forest, a deep dark forest with giant trees that towered as tall as a building and were just wide and ancient. The place itself was pitch black and the trees themselves almost looked like they had no color but the opposite of white.

Anto couldn't see well, but he could at least make out some kind of path that was laid in front of him, as if trying to lead him somewhere.

He inhaled deeply then he exhaled before starting to walk down the path.

As he did, there was this bright light in the distance.

He kept walking closer to it, and saw the light flashing around, dancing among the edges of the path he was walking.

Then, when he felt like he was getting closer, the light started shinning on him and following him.

"Who's there? Hoopa?" Anto called out again but the light suddenly vanished and was replaced by a blue glow.

The dark forest parted, and Anto was greeted by a strange Noctowl—or something that looked like a Noctowl. However, this Noctowl like creature looked to have stolen the stars as it's body looked like that of the night sky with shinning stars across and glowing through its form.

"_Kindness is never a weakness, but a sacrifice._"

The Noctowl spoke in a very familiar voice to the Amnesiac.

"_Do not let the world make you cold and spiteful, my dear friend. Lest you miss the beauty this world also brings._"

With that, the very strange looking Noctowl flew up into the sky and melded with the darkness, bringing the night sky, and the star lights back into Anto's dreamscape.

"**So you're what it takes to get deeper into this.**"

Anto turned his head to see Hoopa with some fancy looking night vision goggles worn on his head. "Hoopa?"

"**Something isn't quite right. The way that guardian just lighted this place up… It's almost as if those things aren't welcome here as well.**"

"Wait what? I thought you said they were some kind of guardians to this… realm/dream thing!?"

"**That was before we came into this plane. The darkness here was trying to eat both of us whole, but when you came back, the next guardian appeared and warded away the darkness.**" Hoopa said as he opened up a ring to drop his night vision goggles in.

"So you're telling me that by some chance. Those creatures that we thought were guardians of whatever this place is—aren't actually protecting this place?" Anto repeated out in a confused manner. This was just getting more bizarre by the second!

Hoopa looked at him. "**Oh they are protecting something alright, but I was wrong. It's not this place they're protecting. It's you.**" Hoopa pointed to Anto's face.

That made Anto look in shock. Those things were protecting him? What made him say that? When He first came here, one of them pounced on him! … Right? But then again, something was quite right with that eye he saw at his first dream that didn't seem to be from the first dream. Next was when Hoopa appeared, as soon as the Guardian appeared, Anto started to wake up before Hoopa and it fought. Wait… did it take him out to the fight to protect him? Come to think of it, when he saw the Sawsbuck like creature a second time, it didn't hurt him, and like the strange Noctowl it just said some familiar, nonsensical, but kind sounding words. The more Anto thought about it, the more he realized that the Guardians here have actually made no move to harm him, but repel Hoopa. If these creatures really were protecting him, it would explain their weird and surreal behavior.

"What? They're… protecting me?" Anto, now confused as all heck scratched his head in confusion. Dreams usually didn't make sense, but during said dreams your mind never notices how little sense they made. Here, for Anto, it was now starting to hurt.

"**It also brings up another point. Oh darn your already fading."** Hoopa said as he looked down to Anto's fading feet and legs on the path. "**If those creature Guardians are protecting you specifically; what are they protecting you ****from?**"

That was the last thing Anto heard before waking up in the morning.

* * *

Anto sat in a circle with all four of his Pokémon while he was in the bedroom floor of White's suite.

Wes walked by and saw what he was doing. "What are you doing?"

"_I'm trying to brain storm a good idea how to fight Elesa today. I saw some of her battles. I don't think I can win with what I have now._" The mute answered. He had seen a battle video of Elesa and she relied a lot on the Volt Switch attack.

Honestly, her strategy looked very hard to battle against for him. She looked to rely on speedy Pokémon who were capable of large mobility through the fights and incase a close range fighter got close enough, she would use Volt Switch to instantly swap Pokémon to avoid and counter her opponents. Takezo, while he did have a ranged move, wouldn't exactly help in this situation, so he would have to sit out of a gym battle for once.

Ohko was technically worse off than Takezo having absolutely no ranged counter. Despite his power and tenacity, Ohko literally had no ways of fighting long ranged opponents.

Lily was his best bet, but Elesa had flying Pokémon, which meant that idea was shut down quickly.

Which left only Sentinel as a viable Pokémon, which even then was not good enough.

If his battle with Burgh was any indication just going in with one viable Pokémon against a gym like that wouldn't end up well.

There was the option of the choice items, but it only worked well against Burgh because he recognized his opponent's Pokémon first hand, so it might not be as effective to use at the first go.

"We are in Nimbasa City. Why not buy some TMs? Get a new move pool and such?" Wes thought out loud.

Anto blinked. "_That uhh. That sounds like a good idea. Thanks Wes._"

Wes handed him a list. "While you're there, use your trainer winning to buy me this stuff."

Anto grabbed the last and watched it fall to the floor and roll to the other side of the wall. "_Why can't you do this again?_"

"Oh I'm laying low since they upped security down the mall."

Anto raised his brow at that before realizing something. "_Wait, why are you laying low? … Wes!_"

"Hey! In my defense, I only needed to pickpocket once every time I visited there!"

Anto rolled his eyes. He unfortunately knew Wes enough that he just needed to pickpocket some unsuspecting rich person just once and he would be set for a day or two. "_Fine, at least you're improving._"

[Later that day.]

The trainer and his four Pokémon were in the middle of a practice battlefield getting ready to start practicing their new moves.

"_Alright, so,_" Anto held a list close to his face while placing the container with six new TMs. "_I found out TMs are insanely expensive, so much in fact that I was half tempted to ask Wes to get them all for me. But I thought against that. But before I left, I was able to go online and find out a list in what Pokémon can learn which TMs and went from there. Since Sentinel isn't public information, I just had to guess from there. Now! Let's start with Takezo. Normal types are the most flexible types in the world with their ability to learn a wide range of move sets. I looked up what you could learn and I tried to find the best move for you. I got Two TMs here that should work…_"

Anto handed two disks to the small normal type. "_One of them is Façade! Which you and Ohko might want to learn incase either of you get paralyzed, burned, or poisoned. This move doubles in power, or technically negates the burn effect. The other one is Shadow Ball, it's a ghost type move incase ghost Pokémon and such fight you long range. Sentinel already knows this move, so maybe he can help you get the hang of how to get used to it better after learning it._"

The mute then looked to Ohko and handed him one brown disk. "_For you, Ohko, I've bought Focus Blast. I found it is one of the few long range moves you can actually learn. It's got great power, but the accuracy sucks. We might have to use it a few times before trying to work around that accuracy gap somehow._"

"**What about me?**" Lily asked.

"_I wanted to give you something in case you were trapped to fight close range, but I couldn't find a good enough move in the list, so the next thing I did was get these two moves! Double Team and Flash! This will greatly help you hide better and synergizes well if we are to use the Leaf Clone into secret Quiver Dancing strategy._" He answered her as he gave her the fourth and fifth TM.

Sentinel looked over to the last light blue TM curiously. "**Hey Anti, what's that one then?**"

"_Oh that? I got it in the deal of buying five and getting one random one for free. It's called Frost Breath it's a very powerful ice move that always critical strikes! And even if it wasn't free, it's a pretty good 'poor man's' Ice Beam, so there wasn't a point in just re selling it since I might get an ice type in the future._" As soon as Anto finished, Sentinel took the left over TM and looked at it with his two bony claws.

Takezo and everyone else just stared at the disks.

"_Well, let's learn those moves and start practicing!_"

All four Pokémon shared a look with each other and their disks. Takezo, being the first to speak up, raised the Façade disk up, "**Anto, how do we use these?**"

"_I…_" He stopped as he tried to answer that. "_I don't… know…_"

Everyone just stared at each other for a few seconds of awkward silence.

"_Alright, let me check something._"

[Slightly later that day.]

"**What do you mean it says, "Apply directly to the Forehead"!?**" Lily shouted as she pointed to her trainer.

"_That's what it flipping says!_" Anto mentally answered back to his shiny Pokémon. "_How the heck is apply a freaking disk to the head supposed to work!? Last time I checked, none of you are machines!_"

"**Yo boss, I think I got it!**" Anto looked back at Ohko who had actually tried to place the disk on his forehead but actually wore his Choice Band on his forehead and slipped the disk between his head and his band, not knowing that you didn't need to keep it attached to your head to learn the move.

Still Around Ohko's only right arm, a large amount of energy gathered and formed a rather powerful looking, but not solid looking orb.

"_Yeah that looks like it alright. It's supposed to be a rudimentary and primitive version of Aura Sphere according to rumors about this move. Good Job Ohko, but you don't need to wear the Choice Band it only increases physical strength not Special or ranged abilities._"

"**Pssh!**" If Ohko still had his other arm, he would have waved it in dismissal as he made that sound. "**Nah boss, I got this. See, with my band, I can throw this thing even faster!**"

"_Ohko, I'm sure that's not how it—_" Anto was interrupted when Ohko actually threw the attack and it speed off like a bullet. However, the main problem about this was that it missed hitting any of the trees and looked to be going towards a man on his knee holding out a ring to a girl.

"Oh Derrick! My answer is—"

Then everything literally exploded on her face. And when the dust settled, the two of them were out cold and covered in dust.

Anto gaped in horror with his mouth hanging out.

"**Huh. I missed.**" Ohko seemed to say to himself before shrugging. "**This time, I'll hit that red building for sure!**"

"_You were aiming for the Pokémon Center!? That's even worse, and not to mention you were facing the wrong direction! Wait, no! Ohko! Do not fire that attack again!_" Anto mentally shouted before his senses screamed at him to take away the disk and Choice Band from Ohko.

"**I thought that attack never missed.**" Ohko asked innocently as people were screaming for Ambulances in the street over where the fighting type had launched the attack.

"_Ohko, please._" Anto thought with some hint of desperation. "_Aura Sphere doesn't miss if you aim the attack and the opponent doesn't dodge correctly. I told you that Focus Blast is not Aura Sphere, just that there are rumors about it being based off that attack._"

"**Oooh!**" Ohko said as even more people were panicking and screaming in the background.

Anto put a palm on his head. At this rate, he would have white hair at a very young age. "_I wish those guys would stop screaming. I'm getting a headache._"

He actually didn't expect them to all actually stop screaming.

His feeling of unease only became worse as he saw Sentinel pop back up from a Phantom Force attack that he didn't even notice him leaving a while ago.

"**There! Now we can train in peace!**" Sentienl clapped his claws as if to dust them off from a job well done.

"_What did you do?_" Anto stared on with horror.

"**Well remember how you gave me that Ice attack?**"

"_Oh Arceus why?_" Was Anto's quick response.

"**Hey let me finish! Anyway, I found out that I could learn that move! But then those screaming people were so distracting, so I went through Phantom Force to go up to them. Then I realized as I was walking through the attack that you said that there was absolutely no temperature in there! So I inhaled the Frost Breath as much as I could while I was there, and when I reappeared in front of all those screamers, I froze them all with a Super Frost Breath!**" He beamed with pride. It wasn't because he was mean; it was because he thought his trainer would be proud of how he used his new move. It's really too bad that Sentinel had no idea that attacking people for the whim of it was considered very wrong.

As soon as Sentinel finished, all Pokémon noticed Anto on the ground in fetal position.

"**Anto?**"

"_Takezo, let me be in my happy place. I know it's imaginary because it's peaceful._"

After a few more awkward seconds of his Pokémon watching him hyperventilate, Anto got back up.

The mute inhaled deeply, very deeply, before exhaling calmly. "_… Alright, Takezo, Lily, did you two learn those new moves_?"

The other two Pokémon nodded.

"_Good. It's a bit pressed for time, but I would like us to learn these moves quickly before trying out some new Fusion Moves._" He sighed before looking towards the Pokémon Center. "_So while I'm gone, please practice your new moves a bit._"

"**Where are you going?**" Lily asked.

The amnesiac turned to them but kept walking on. "_I'm going to note to Nurse Joy that she might need some fire type Pokémon._"

Hey, even when bad things go awry, someone still has to do the right thing. Even if it is their fault.

* * *

[Later…]

The challenger for today's gym challenge was waiting patiently around the Mansion of Elesa.

Apparently, the Gym leader was currently putting off Gym Challenges since her gym was currently demolished and her planned, future Gym had already begun reconstruction. However, when she found out it was Anto issuing the challenge she worked in a battle for him and invited him to her Mansion where there was a practice field they would be allowed to battle in.

Still there were some things Elesa probably needed to fix before the two could have their battle, so Anto was asked to wait with his Pokémon in her living room.

While there, Anto had taken out his harmonica, the one he won from Jail and started playing it again. He honestly had not used this since back before he even won his first badge. And as he let his body play musical notes, he found it therapeutic to let his mind wander and let his body do the work. It was the same song as he first played, he didn't know what it was called, but he did like the song none the less.

As it finally ended Anto sighed and opened his eyes—then he saw Elesa silently watching him.

"_Elesa? W-When did you get here?!"_ The younger boy asked in surprise.

"Did I startle you? I didn't want to interrupt your song. You play it very nicely." She spoke with a smile from the couch across from him.

"_No, you didn't interrupt me, and thanks. … I don't know what the song is though, but the way my body moves automatically, it must have been my favorite and most practiced song or at least one of my favorite._"

Elesa closed her eyes and smiled before speaking to the boy. "Did you know that I once had a high school sweet heart?"

Anto didn't know where this was going to go, but decided to converse with her. "_Must have been one lucky guy._"

Elesa giggled. "I guess most people would say that. Though looking back, I'm glad I met him."

Consider the young mute's interested piqued. "_Care to elaborate?_"

"His name was Kail. He was a rather bleak, normal guy who was only known as the highest grade student in Biology and Chemistry. You know Highschool, not all trainers leave home, and some come back to be sent to school. He had this messy dark brown hair and boring dark brown eyes and he looked to be having his hives break out of his face." She laughed as she recalled the time of her past. "I was… trying to find my way, so I wasn't really part of a good crowd. My grades were slipping and my relation with my parents was horrible. My Bio teacher got me paired up with Kail to tutor me in his class."

"_I sense you building up to talk about a very interesting first meeting._"

"Well, me watching him kissing a baby Poliwag on the head was certainly something." She then laughed hard at the memory, breaking her cool persona.

Anto smiled as he hung on her every word. "_Why was he kissing a Poliwag?_"

"Well at first, he tried to play if off in a overly tough man voice saying, "Yeah take that poisonous monstrosity, I'm am immune to your supposed deadly poison!" But even I knew that Poliwags were not poison types." She faked man bravado before an honest and serene smile appeared on her face. "The real reason why he kissed the creature was to make it feel better. Before I had come in, the Poliwag had accidentally hurt itself, and it was his way of soothing the poor creature. It was actually a newborn Pokémon and was essentially a baby born for a lab. Kail was one of the people showing it tenderness and care."

Anto stayed silent as Elesa continued.

"We got on together like Oil and Water, I literally blackmailed him and he in return made my study sessions and all of my academic class a living hell by somehow getting all the teachers to focus on me. What finally got us to stop was when Kail extended the olive branch first and gave me a flower for Valentine 's Day. He had basically said that he got tired and ran out of tricks to one up me, so he thought he would just try being my friend and see where that goes from there." She sighed like school girl in love. "It irked me when he did that, I thought he was planning something so I tried to get him to break as much as I could. But despite how hard I tried, he still tried to befriend me, still tried to teach me how to be better in class. When I finally asked him why he was being so stubborn about this… he said that he never had a friend before."

The challenger waited for the Gymleader to stop her reflective thoughts.

"He admitted that he didn't really have any human friends since he spent so much time with Pokémon. But he figured and thought I would be a good friend because we both wanted the same thing: somewhere to belong. … He… he somehow recognized that feeling in me when he saw me glance out a window and just… wanted a friend. I don't get it, but he was right. We then got along a little better after that, our after school sessions became more like hangout time even when my grades were getting better. I found myself smiling more around him, found better friends, made amends with my parents, and left that old group. While being friends with me, he became more sociable, played more sports, worked harder, and may I just say really worked till he got toned out." She purred as she said that last sentence. "Basically life got better and we started dating at the last year of high school." Her smile died down. "Though after graduating, we went on different career paths. We broke off our relationship in pursuit of our dreams, him being a Pokémon Doctor and I—well I'm sure Val told you that story."

"_Do you even keep in contact with him?_" Anto asked.

Elesa stood up. "… I do… but not in the way I would like to."

The mute boy raised his brow in confusion at how she worded that phrase. "_Did something happen?_"

Elesa wore that proud smile she always wore. "Life happened, but enough boring you with my life story. If you really want to know what happened, you're going to have to beat me."

"_Alright then! You're going down!_"

"That's the spirit I'd like to see. Keep that up and even those dirtbags won't be able to touch you anymore." Elesa started leading Anto towards her private battle arena.

Anto had been in a private Gym Arena before, when he and Black used it from the Striation Brothers, but he wondered how different Elesa's was?

Very different in terms of aesthetics.

The giant arena looked to be one kind of heightened stage, tiled and styled almost like a giant walk way.

Elesa spoke out loud as she walked up the stairs. "If you're wondering why the battlefield was like this. I was thinking of experimenting where I could model and show off battles at the same time. It sounded tricky at first, but having thinking things over it seems possible if my gym could double as a runway and battlfield."

Anto nodded before walking to one corner of the giant stage. Elesa took out a remote, activating two large screens on the opposite upper ends of the room revealing both her and Anto's face on the screen with three Pokémon icons on her side and three on Anto's side.

"The Challenge is a three one-on-one battle. I'm sure you're familiar with these rules?" Elsea took out a Poké Ball as she asked this.

Anto nodded once, brandishing his own Dusk Ball.

{Recommended Music: **Greatest Battle Music of All Times - Riding High (Impact Music)**}

"Then we will begin!" Elesa smiled. "Go Emolga!"

"_Sentinel, tear the field asunder!_"

As they threw their Pokémon onto the battlefield, Sentinel and Elesa's Emolga appeared into the field.

"Electro Ball!" The model gymleader commanded quickly. And just as fast, her Emolga chaged a rather large sphere of electricity in an instant as it rushed right for Sentinel.

"_Fade into Shadow Sneak!_" The challenger commanded in response and the Delta Charmeleon, dropped into his own shadow a mere second before the attack could connect. The electric attack burst into an explosion that covered Anto's side of the field. However, a shadow shot out from the explosion and quickly raced out from the location of the attack.

Sentinel leapt out of the shadows, already inhaling before launching a Frost Breath towards Emolga. Emolga was instantly surprised as the Ice attack came her way, but quickly ascended high near the ceiling to avoid the frozen air. Sentinel continued moving though, making his way towards his frozen breath with his Dragon Claw(s) flaring and slashing up the stalagmites his ice breath created when it froze the air. The Delta Pokémon cut off one of the Stalagmites before chucking it at the high flying Emolga who dodged the attack, but then shielded itself when the ice shattered on the ceiling and the dust fell on top of her.

"Emolga, don't stop moving!" Elesa cried out, making Emolga look back down and quickly drop to avoid a Shadow Ball from hitting her.

Sentinel re armed his Dragon Claw and started cutting up more Stalagmites and sending them quickly towards Emolga by either throwing, or even kicking ice chunks on high. Emolga swerved and jinked along the air to avoid all the ice chunks being thrown at the electric and flying type. Deciding she should stop being on the defensive, Emolga dove for Sentinel as he threw another chunk of ice at her. In reaction, Emolga folded her body inward before lashing out with a powerful Air Slash that cut the ice chunk in half. Acting quickly, the dual type sped through the parted ice and launched another Electro Ball at Sentinel, who simply delved back into the shadows.

"_Ok this is getting us nowhere,_" Anto thought to himself as he watched another volley of Electro Ball and Shadows Balls fly across the field. "_The two are obviously well versed in keeping up long range combat. And as tempting as it is, I would rather not fight war of attritions considering while Emolga and Sentinel might be able to, but Elesa has more experience as a trainer behind her than I do. The question is though, what do I do?_"

Anto watched the back and forth go on for a bit until something hit him.

"_Sentinel! Phantom Force!_"

The Delta Pokémon seemed confused until the telepathic mute explained his plan. At that, Sentinel literally vanished into thin air.

"Keep your guard up Emolga, keep moving in the air!" Elesa countered.

A smile curled up Anto's lips when Elesa looked at him. "_Sorry Elesa, but what made you think I was going to use Phantom Force to get up there?_"

To the gym leader's surprise, Sentinel appeared right where he vanished, but his mouth and some parts of his body looked to have some ice frozen…

"Emolga, dive!"

"_Unleash all the cold air! Frost Breath!_" Anto commanded as Sentinel, inhaling the dark cold of the Phantom Force, unleashed the increased attack high on the ceiling unleashing a pseudo blizzard that froze the ceiling now creating stalactites instead of Stalagmites.

Elesa saw what Anto was doing, he was changing the field to his advantage, if he did another one of those empowered Frost Breaths, the entire field would have been covered by Ice and impossible to move.

"Emolga, Volt Switch!"

"_I was waiting for that move!_ _Dragon Claw, hurry and parry the hit!_" Anto watched the videos of Elesa abusing her favorite move Volt Switch not only to attack, but to avoid attacking Pokémon as well at times. However, there was one unique property of the attack that the mute noticed in a video of her battles.

Sentinel Charged right for Emolga as she threw the attack towards the Delta Pokémon. However, instead of dodging, Sentinel activated his Dragon Claw attack and put the attack in front of him to block the Volt Switch from harming him.

As the attack made contact, Emolga returned to her Poké Ball.

Sentinel empowered his Dragon Claws even further, making them blaze even brighter before dashing faster towards where Emolga was.

This was because the one interesting fact of Volt Switch was that the Pokémon would replace the user always appears on the very spot the user left.

Elesa's Zebstrika sure wasn't expecting the first thing to see, be a snarling Dragon type slashing with tearing Dragon Claws.

The rend of energy blasted the evolved electric type a good distance away before it stood back up, injured but taking the hit as best as it could have.

Elesa pointed to Anto. "Good move with the ice, but the thing about changing the environment is that any side can use it! Use Flame Charge! Then Flare up!"

Anto's eyes widened as the electric Pokémon used a fire attack before flaring up to intense heat around the room, causing the stalactites above that were created by Sentinel to start weakening on top of them.

The young boy's amber eyes narrowed. What was she doing with that? He got his answer when Elesa called out, "Use Discharge on the icicles above!"

Her electric type unleashed a wave of voltage towards the top, zapping it in such a way that it was causing all spikes above Sentinel to fall down on top of him.

"Thunderwave!" Elesa called out quickly, much to the shock of both Anto and Sentinel as the paralyzing attack hit Sentinel and froze him, making him unable to fade away with either Shadow sneak of Phantom Force.

The debris of ice fell on top of Sentinel made a deafening crash noise and made the two battlers cover their hands to shield from the dust.

As the dust settled, Sentinel was seen, crushed under the pillars of ice, apparently unable to turn himself intangible as the roof he froze fell on top of him.

Anto had to give Elesa credit he was making him work for this badge like everyone else.

Anto returned Sentinel before throwing out Lily.

"… **Why is there ice and water here?**" Lily asked as she looked around.

"_Sentinel and I tried to use the Ice attack. It worked well… until Elesa turned it against me._" The mute boy projected.

Elesa's voice surrounded the field. "Zebstrika, Flame Charge!"

The electric Pokémon flared from his area before racing towards Lily. The shiny Pokémon looked towards Anto before seemingly walking towards the charging evolved Pokémon. Elesa thought something was off immediately and only saw her suspicions confirmed when a bright flash of light blinded the entire field.

When she opened her eyes, Lily was already finishing a Quiver Dance set up.

Lily gracefully stepped forward and combed through her 'hair' with her hand to flick if off. "**Now then,**" She locked eyes with Zebstrika. "**It's your turn to dance.**"

Then a flurry of rainbow leaves covered the field.

"Flame Charge!" Elesa said as Zebstrika avoided a burst of leaves trying to hit him. Thanks to the Flame Charge attacks, Zebstrika's speed was raised beyond twice as much. The Electric type dashed for the grass type while his fire move was up. However, The electric type was confused as to why his enemy was not moving. Still he rammed through—only to find out he had just passed through an after image. The electric type stopped and whipped his head around.

There were faint images of Lily everywhere, and the worst part of it was that all of them were using Quiver Dance.

Zebstrika decided to lure out the real one by unleashing a wide spread Discharge attack.

However, Elesa's eyes widened. "Wait! Zebstrika!"

The electric Pokémon was very unaware of how close it was to the chunks of ice debris he was and neglected that they already were being melted from before. He didn't notice the puddle of water just about to reach him because he had been so focused on Lily setting up another Quiver Dance.

His master's call came too late as Zebstrika accidentally shocked himself after he unleashed the Discharge.

Lily, in the meantime, slid out from behind the ice on a pile of dry leaves levitating above the water, as she was pseudo levitating by controlling a platform of Magical Leaves for her to stand on above the ground. In her hands she was forming a rather small but condensed Energy Ball before it bolted and blasted Zebstrika off the runway.

"How interesting! You're grass type is levitating by floating on the pile of Magical Leaves she's still controlling! I can see why Burgh locked himself in his studio for a week." Elesa commented with intrigue before bringing back out Emolga. "Well then! I guess I'll be one of the first to have an air battle with a pure grass type Pokémon! Emolga, Air Slash!"

Her electric type cried out before launching a quick burst of air towards the Lilligant . In defense, the shiny Pokémon flipped off from her platform and the leaves split out of the way of the slash before forming beneath her as she landed straight up with a motion of her arms, more Magical Leaves from her platform shot out towards Emolga who countered by incinerating it with an Electro Ball.

The air fight slightly reflected that of Emolga's fight with Sentinel. However, this time Lily was at a disadvantage. While she was boosted in speed, she could not translate her speed boost into her floating leaf platform and not to mention this was technically Lily's first air battle while using the platform attack. Eventually, Emolga was able to knock Lily off her leaves by out maneuvering her and blasting her back with an Air Slash.

Anto was able to catch her before she fell, and mentally noted that next time, they should actually practice that.

Anto was now down two Pokémon while Elesa still hadn't used her last Pokémon. Still, Emolga looked pretty tired from both Sentinel's and Lily's attack, so maybe his last Pokémon had the chance to turn things around.

The mute took out a Great Ball. "_Step it up, Ohko!_" The boy called out as the one armed Sawk appeared on the field with a splash on the puddle ground.

Elesa was surprised that her challenger would bring out a fighting type Pokémon agasint her Emolga, but instead of trying for a flying type attack, she would also use the environment to her advantage like Anto did.

"Emolga, Electro Ball on the water!" Elesa pointed out as Emolga launched a fast electric attack towards Ohko.

However the fighting type stood his ground and reclined his right hand back. A burst of light appeared in his palm before he clenched it into his fist and threw it at the Electro Ball. The condensed Focus Blast made contact with the Electro Ball and unleashed a huge explosion that blew most of the water and ice off the runway. Not only that, the Focus Blast attack still continued on despite the clash and raced towards Emolga. Emolga thought she was able to dodge the attack at the last second, but while she was about to get out of its trajectory, it exploded into massive boom.

"What!? Was that Focus Blast!? But it moved so fast!" Elesa cried out as she saw Emolga fall to the floor unconscious, tying up the score.

The mute was actually very surprised that Focus Blast was working so well for Ohko since it was technically his first ranged attack ever. He even thought Ohko had horrible special Attack abilities. However, it seemed that Ohko, in his own strange way, turned a Special Attack in to something more physical. Focus Blast did work similarly to that of Aura Sphere where you had to gather energy and shoot it at your target. Ohko, condensed all the power of a Focus Blast into a palm, making it more tangible and having more physical properties like weight and touch before throwing it instead of aiming/launching it. He had technically negated the low accuracy of the attack by making it move faster and condensing it in such a way it would explode in a wide radius even if the attack would miss.

The amnesiac smiled as he looked at Ohko's back. The harsh people always called him an idiot, but when it came to battling…

"_Ohko! One Hit Knock out!_"

The fighting type turned back and gave a smirk. "**Sorry Boss, doesn't count if they ain't at their best.**"

Ohko was a fighting genius.

Elesa laughed. "Well this is turning out to be a very fun battle! But I'm not going to lose this yet! Come on out, Tynamo!"

Anto and Ohko were surprised to see the small electric type come out. But they were even more surprised by the fact that the she was wearing a Choice Band!

"Unfortunately for me, Tynamo only knows tackle, but I was able to train her around this in turn for her attacks to be stronger than usual! Go Tynamo!"

"_Wait, it only knows Tackle? Sweet! Ohko can just spam Counter and we'll win for…_" Anto started off before Ohko looked at him with a somewhat sad look.

"…" Anto sighed as Tynamo came charging in. It looks like Anto was just destined to never get the easy way out. "_Just don't hold back Ohko._"

"**Me, hold back? **" Was all Ohko answered with a huge, dorky grin before turning towards his opponent and meeting her attack head on with a punch.

The two attacks collided, blowing the air around the field from the impact, but even with the Choice Band, Ohko powered through and pushed Tynamo back. The white electric Pokémon shook herself before going at it again, Ohko ready to face her attack head on at her best.

The slugfest went on for a bit, but it was obvious that Ohko was overpowering Tynamo.

"**I can't do this.**" Tynamo whined with having her head hurt. "**You're too strong!**"

"**Hey now dude!**" Ohko shouted and pointed to her. "**Are you really going to give up just like that?**"

"**But I only know one move, and I was so proud of how I could beat even other Pokémon with just one move! Then you overpowered me, I can't beat that.**"

"**It ain't about being the strongest! It's about ****becoming**** the strongest, yo! It's about taking on whatever the world throws at ya and punching back no matter what! So what if I'm stronger right now? You just need to become stronger right now!**"

"… **Become stronger?**" Tynamo glanced back at Elesa who smiled gently at her. "**Right now?**"

Ohko pounded on his chest proudly. "**Right! You want to be the best? You gotta face the best! Ya haven't lost yet, so quit ya moping and fight me with everything ya got!**"

Tynamo shook her head and turned serious towards Ohko before charging another Tackle towards the one armed Sawk.

The fighting type met her head on in another powerful clash, but this time, neither one seemed to be bulging from their spots. Until Tynamo was enveloped by a beautiful white light in the midst of the push and started warding back Ohko.

"_Oh don't tell me she's!?_" Anto cried out as lo and behold: Tynamo evolved into Elektrik! His opponent, who happened to be a gym leader, had her Pokémon evolve in the middle of their match? Anto's luck really did suck.

Then, with new found strength and a burst of electricity around the newly evolved Pokémon, she pushed Ohko away and sent him flying into the ground.

"Ty—no, Elektrik! You evolved!" Elesa exclaimed with pride. Her newly evolved Pokémon smile in joy before looking back to see Ohko getting back up.

"**See!? Now that's what I'm talking about!**" Ohko declared as he rushed towards Elektrik. The opposing electric type burst with a Spark attack, and ran up to meet with the Sawk.

What happened next was nothing short of a slug fest, each Pokémon landing blow after heavy blow against each other, but still standing tall after each attack. It was a test of endurance and pride, each trying their best to one up the other by kicking, punching, head bashing, tail slapping, or any limb or body part they could throw hard at each other.

It came to one final point where Ohko and Elektrik, both tired and injured but smiling hard.

In one final blow, Ohko gave everything to a Reversal attack while Elektrik put her all into her last Spark attack the two attacks hit their targets head on…

And both of them fell at the same time.

{End Music}

"_A draw?_" Anto called out as he saw the two knocked out Pokémon in the floor.

"It seems so," Elesa said as the two walked up to their fallen Pokémon. However, Elesa then tossed her badge towards Anto and the boy quickly caught it in reflex. "Congratulations. You win the Bolt Badge."

Anto looked at her in surprise "_B-But it was a tie?_"

"Winning isn't always what it takes to earn a badge. Sometimes, it's strength of character as an amazing trainer. For example: letting your Pokémon fight it out instead of easily ending the match because they asked you to," Elesa spoke out surprising, the winner. "The moment I explained that Tynamo only knew Tackle, you smiled wide before looking at your Pokémon. He probably asked you not to end this easily huh? Not only that, but I saw my Pokémon losing spirit after each clash with your fighting type. Then before I could, you own Pokémon beat me to the punch in cheering her up. How a Pokémon acts reflect from their trainer, and I've seen who you are from them."

Anto returned Ohko as Elesa did the same with Eleltrik. The gymleader chuckled and mused to herself. "Taking care of fools can be quite troublesome huh?"

Anto blinked and asked her what she meant by that.

The gymleader smiled slowly. "It's about Kail. He wanted to be doctor, but he always didn't like the idea of people coming to him, rather he wanted to go and help people and Pokémon who were too tired to get to the hospital, so he traveled the world as a mobile doctor. One day, there was a landslide while he was leaving one of the towns he was visiting; he would have left to safety, but there was a freaking Rattata that was in danger of being swept away, so he dove in to save the little Pokémon…" She said sadly.

"_Oh, I'm so sorry_." Anto sadly said.

Elesa shook her head. "The rat and the Pokémon actually survived though, but he's been in a coma for two years. His family was able to move him over her to the Nimbasa Hospital during that time, and I found out a month after his accident. I've been busy visiting that bull headed idiot these past two years, waiting to tell him off the moment he got up…"

Anto listened carefully and seemed to come to a particular conclusion. "_You still have feelings for him don't you?_"

She folded her arms, but smile kindly. "I suppose, but I have him to blame for that. You're a good kid Anto, but just remember you also have people waiting for you, so don't just charge in and be a hero, and at least use your head first."

Anto gave a small smile at the piece of advice Elesa was giving. "_For what it's worth, I have this feeling that maybe he didn't kick the bucket because he knows what would happen if he met you in the afterlife._"

"Dam straight." She said, not really bothering to correct her terms despite how unlady like it was. "But I digress, congratulations Anto." She said as she reached out for his hand and the two shook with a sign of respect.

* * *

"So, we're finally leaving town huh?" Wes said as he and Anto were staring down the path towards Route 5 to Driftveil City.

"_Yeah. … Feels really quiet and empty compared to when we first entered._" Anto commented telepathically. He sure didn't expect so much to happen when he first stepped in this City.

Wes seemed to pause before sighing. "Well! We can't dawdle here all day. Come on, you've got a league to get into and highly trained organizations after you."

"Wait up!"

The two boys looked surpised when they saw both two people catching up with them.

"_White? Jamie_?" Anto was surprised to see the two brunettes coming up to them.

"Good," White spoke out. "We caught up with you guys."

Jamie nodded in agreement. "I was surprised at how quickly you two checked out of the hotel, so we both had to quickly go after you."

"So what brings you here?" The boy from Orre asked simply as he folded his arms.

Jamie shrugged his shoulders. "I came here for the Music Festival, but since it ended early, I have nothing much to do here in Unova. This place is in a state of alert and every place in and out of the region has upped their security,"

Wes and Anto looked at each other. They had forgotten about that little tidbit, traveling to and from here was a little uncomfortable as of right now.

"So I figured, I'd follow you guys for a while. You don't mind me coming along right?" He asked casually.

"_And you White?_" The mute asked.

The girl simply sighed. "I'll try to keep it to the bare basics. My mom is in the hospital recovering her injuries. Until she's out, I'm in charge of the BW Company. But my mom didn't want me to stop my journey, while I refused to let her work while she was recovering, so both of us came with a compromise: a good friend of my mother's will momentarily take over, but I will be the one helping her via phone and emails. Because of this, I have less time to go around and continue the league challenge, but I do want to travel the rest of Unova. I also decided to travel with you guys, since Summer doesn't quite trust Wes to be reined in by just Anto alone."

"Tch!" Wes clicked his tongue.

"So as Jamie said, you don't mind us coming right?" White asked plainly.

The Snagger and the Mute stepped out for a second and conversed, Jamie and White wondered what they were going to say until Wes looked back and cleared his throat. "We will let you in, if you pay for your own meal and such!"

"Alright." Jamie said as he and Wes shook hands. However, it was then Jamie noticed Wes smirk and Anto face palm. "What?"

"Nothing," Wes innocently said before walking up the path of route 5.

The new comer looked to Anto, who only gave him a sympathetic look. "_Jamie, you screwed up. Big time._" Was all he said before walking after Wes.

"Wait what? Why? Why!?" Jamie yelled as he ran after the two other boys.

White smiled nervously at the three boys going ahead of her. "Well this is… different…" She honestly had no idea what to say before following them all on this strange adventure.

* * *

**{Author notes}**

**Dream sequences are almost always kind of tricky to write. It's a bit lazy and cheap in writing since "It's Just a Dream" argument kind of doesn't leave room for argument.**

**I never even watched Inception and I hear that it's very… complex. **

**As such, hopefully, I kind of wanted to make my dream sequences mysterious but at the same time different in a way that wouldn't confuse people too much. **

**Which I think I failed at. Huh.**

**The point of the dreams was to maybe parallel a sort of "Down the Rabbit hole" where the deeper you go, the stranger it all gets. (LOOK AT TITLE OF SERIES.) As Anto and Hoopa delve deep into this "Not-Dimension" they unknowingly are getting closer to answering one of the main lingering questions of this story. **

**I'll let you guess which question that is.**

**Next we got Elesa, thought I would add a little more back story. It kind of gave me a reason to have her tell Anto "If you're going to be a hero, don't piss off others by being stupid." I don't know. I imagined Elesa being a very independent woman that need no man! *Snaps fingers* But I also kind of like the idea of true love and having a couple that brings out the good in best in both of them. (Like Wall-e!)**

**The purpose of trying to at least give her some back story is to make them feel more human. This is a fan story after all, you can write as much as you want without deadlines of funding problems about these types of people. I kind of wanted a character to be a bit more than what they are revealed to be in the series.**

**Next on the discussion board we got Ohko. My favorite one armed fighting type, and lovable block head. I like to think that despite Ohko's inability in academia and all forms of social knowledge, he is actually more focused in the actual fighting aspects of things since he has been self taught to fight from the beginning of his life. That's why when it actually comes to a fight, Ohko is a natural genius despite his flaws in anything else. I just love it when characters are complex.**

**Fourth thing on the list is Jamie, he's going to be joining to make a trio with Wes and Anto! They shall be known as the Three Musketeers (plus White), gallivanting the land, stealing from the unsuspecting, and leaving destruction in their wake! … Wait that sounds more like a bad guy…**

**And about White, first off, she's pretty. Second of all, there had to be someone willing to rein in Wes and take care of Anto, and White has been doing that with Black and Bianca when they were kids so she gets the award in new Hen mother!**

**One of the next things I want to talk about was the gym battle. As you can see the usage of ice and fire sort of returns but very different as to how Wes and Platinum's battle went since Elesa also used the same advantage Anto thought he created. I kind of like the ideas of gym leaders being super competent in battling. I mean just because you (A trainer) think of something clever doesn't mean the Gymleaders are just going to sit there and take it.**

**Any who! Whoo! It's only been one week, but dang! 8000 ish words for the next chapter? (And another extra 5000 words from my other stories?) Writing so much is actually kind of fun!**

**Next chapter, the new trio make their way towards Driftveil! I wonder what problems will appear for our little new comer? Oh well, they'll cross that bridge when they get there… get it?**

**Thanks for reading! Show your support by reviewing, following and favorite!**

* * *

Elesa was brining a bouquet of flowers towards the hospital and sighed as she entered a room. To her surprise, there was someone sitting straight up from a bed.

The man turned over to see her, and a smile curled up his face. "Well at least this time I wasn't kissing a Poliwag."

Elesa walked up and slapped the man in the face.

"Ow!"

Then she slapped him with the bouquet of flowers she brought.

"Holy! Did you even remove the thorns from that!?"

Then she shut him up and kissed him.

"…" Kali was silent before he kissed her back. He saw the tears in her eyes and smiled. "Well, I don't mind this type of kissing then."

"I hate you," Elesa said as she hugged him tightly. "So much…"

Kail hugged her back. "Good to see you to Ely."


	28. Ep 28: No, You Can't Go Home

Episode 28: Friends in High Places

* * *

"Wow!" White cooed as she looked at her Servine which she named Seraph. "So this is how you talk!"

White's grass type starter agreed. "**It's wonderful to finally speak to you Madam!**"

"Just call me White," The girl said with a smile as she bent over and petted her Pokémon.

"You sound much cuddlier than I imagined!" Jamie chuckled as he held Sylveon in his arms. At that, he quickly looked around with both Wes and Anto staring at him strangely.

"**This is so cool Jamie!**" Jamie's Sylveon spoke up happily before being put down by her trainer.

"**Yeah, it is pretty cool isn't it?**" Wes' Espeon beamed with pride as he and Umbreon were nearby Jamie's Sylveon. "**I learned how to do this from a legendary!**"

Umbreon stepped closer to Jamie's Sylveon while slightly leaning towards the place between his psychic brother and her. "**He also chucked one for our friends over a bridge later on that very same day.**"

Espeon narrowed his eyes towards his dark counterpart. "**Well you tricked an Empoleon into eating one of the spiciest foods in the world for the fun of it.**"

The two then stared down each other, making Sylveon look at them all worryingly. "**W-Why don't you tell me more about the story of how you two met the others?**"

Lily looked over to the three Eeveelution Pokémon. "**I swear…**" She placed a hand on her forehead before shaking her head.

The group of four was on their way towards the Driftveil Draw Bridge which was close to uninspired name of Driftveil City. However, despite the peaceful walk that everyone was going through and getting to know their new travel partners, Anto was feeling very nervous.

Why you ask? Because he was just expecting something to pop up during his travel to Driftveil City and add to the horrible misfortune that was his life and so far, nothing was happening. He kept waiting for whatever accident to come crashing after him, but it hadn't come yet. This was very stressful to the amnesiac since he kept expecting it to come out at any moment.

Wes, noticing the rather tense look on the black haired boy's face as he continued walking, spoke out to him, "Dude you look horrible."

"_Don't you find it odd how nothing bad is happening right now?_" The mute responded as he turned back to the older teen.

"Oh, so that's what you are worried about right?" Wes nodded as if his question was a proper answer. "Well I guess it's kinda weird."

White and Jamie looked at Wes.

"What do you mean?" White raised her brow as if there was some hidden meaning lost between the two's conversation.

"_Ever since I've woken up in a Pokémon Center, I've literally been through one misadventure to the next one. Now? There's nothing happening!_" Anto emphasized the 'nothing' part of his psionic speech. "_It's nerve racking!_"

Jamie stared at Anto in surprise. "You're kidding right?" The tense look of Anto glancing around warily as they all continued to walk told the Kalos boy that the mute wasn't faking this.

Wes seemed to talk out loud as they all slowed down their walking. "Don't worry about it. Just relax until this supposed 'bad thing' happens, otherwise you're just stressing yourself. So you know, calm down and enjoy what peace you're being given. When trouble comes, we'll just cross that bridge when we get there."

Everyone stopped walking and looked to Wes.

They were all in view of the Driftveil Draw Bridge to the next city which they were all about to cross.

"… _Did you just make a pun?_" Anto questioningly looked to the usually sarcastic Orreian.

All eyes were on the silver haired boy as he blinked and looked back to everyone else, including his own two Pokémon. He shrugged his shoulders. "What? I can't make a pun or something for the fun of it? Besides, we're near a bridge, seems like a shame not to make a reference to one."

"_You didn't do this during Skyarrow Bridge._" The mute pointed out.

"It didn't occur to me then." Wes relaxed and looked back. "Huh, you know I didn't expect things to be this awkward after saying a pun." He scratched his nose lightly.

"What were you expecting?" Jamie raised his brow.

"Dunno. Weak, forced sitcom laughter?"

Anto sighed before looking ahead. "_Can we just go? I'm getting a headache. And If what Wes is saying is true, I want to sleep in a bed before whatever it is comes and snatches me off the gro—_"

Soon as he turned to walk towards the bridge, a bright circle appeared around Anto, and burst to light wall that surrounded him.

"Anto!" White and Jamie cried, and all of Anto's Pokémon looked on with shock.

The boy with black hair just face palmed before the light around him brightened and he vanished in an instant.

* * *

Anto thought that he had terrible luck. He admitted that more than he wanted to.

Considering the amnesiac's record, he always thought that these strings of unfortunate events were unwillingly preparing him to take on any situation imaginable, and not some kind of sick and twisted fetish of destiny that loved to watch him suffer.

But the thing about all of this?

"**Hail and well met, Huuuu—woman! What is up in da buzyness? Fo Shizzle my nizzle when I be shipping!**"

Anto underestimated how unbelievably unfair fate can throw curve balls.

Because he just got #$%$^ abducted by aliens.

"_SUNNNNNNNNNUUUUUUUUUUVVVVVAAAAAA—!_"

* * *

Jamie and White were in utter panic as well as their Pokémon, looking around frantically around for the disappearing boy.

Wes, his Pokémon, and Anto's Pokémon were just staring at the spot where the mute vanished.

"Dang it, after everything we did to get him back," Wes folded his arms and sighed. "He just up and vanishes out of thin air. What a jerk."

"Wes!?" Jamie frantically looked around. "We-We gotta find Anto!"

"Calm down, Sunshine," Wes relaxed. "I admit, vanishing out of thin air is a new one, but this kind of thing does seem to happen to Anto on a near daily basis."

"Did you just call me Sunshine?" Jamie's face froze before he narrowed his eyes towards Wes.

"Wes," White calmed herself down. "Why aren't you worried?"

"Well I am worried, but then again it's Anto. I'm sure he can handle it."

* * *

Now that he was done mentally screaming, Anto looked around the spaceship, it looked very… alienly? How else was he supposed to describe something out of this world?

He was pinned to something like an operating table that was left standing vertically, and with a strange Elgyem looking at him with a Santa hat, fake beard and over the top human looking clothes that obviously were too large for the psychic type. He looked around the room, seeing the sleek and almost alien like material that was so smooth, but also looked somewhat alive with its low glowing greenish-white colors.

From what little Anto already knew about the Elgyem Pokémon was that they were rumored to be extraterrestrials, and considering where he was now, and factoring his incredible luck, Anto came to the conclusion that somehow he was abducted by aliens.

The Universe just doesn't play fair. He swore, if there was some kind of balance check—maybe someone else was actually having a great amount of good luck to balance out his almost godly bad luck somewhere else, he promised tables would flip!

* * *

Meanwhile, In another Dimension…*****

"Achoo!" A long haired, seventeen year old trainer sneezed while on a lunch date with his girlfriend.

"Are you alright, Katsu?" His girlfriend asked worryingly.

"I'm fine. Someone must have been talking about… oh hey, someone dropped 1000 Pokédollars…" The male trainer bent over to pick up the fallen and rare bill on the ground.

"… And you just happen to find that when you looked down to sneeze? Does anything bad ever happen to you?"

"Hey, it's not always like that. Besides, someone might be looking for this. What do I need 1000 bucks for?"

"I swear Katsu, you are too lucky sometimes."

* * *

Back on the other side of the cosmic spectrum, the Elgyem keeping Anto captive was psychically holding up a dictionary and looking through it. "**Gimme a moment my main man, I be tryin' to search up the hidden meaning of your poetic words in the language master, young grass hopper…**"

In other words, somehow, the alien was looking up a human dictionary looking for all of the words (Profanities) he just screamed out.

"_Who are you?_" Anto asked at last.

"**Arg matey! Yar be trippin all kinds of stuff now, ya heard, eh young leafblower senpai?**" Somehow the psychic alien Pokémon was mixing over several thick accents together as she psychically communicated to Anto.

It was starting to give him a headache honestly. "_Please stop talking like that. No one talks like that._"

"**Excuse me? But was this not the accent of which you H2O carriers speak?**" The Elgyem, now sounding more inquisitive and calm, asked as she continued to look at the dictionary.

"_No, you're just mixing all accents together and now are sounding completely incomprehensible. Also, why am I tied to this?_" Anto motioned to the clamps that were binding him.

The extraterrestrial placed a hand on her chin, "**Odd, I thought this would be how humans greet one another…**"

"No, it's not. Please let me go."

"**Very well, homie!**" Suddenly, from the smooth looking floor, a pedestal rose from that was quite like it was originally part of it. The spot turned liquid like before shooting upward slowly and forming into something shaped much like the Elgyem's head. "**Log Baerilto: I have finally come and made first contact with the three dimensional beings known as a huwoman,**" Anto wanted to correct her but decided not to. "**And I have been told that the 'chain play' is actually not acceptable among their kind! Perhaps I must study the video again once more.**"

"_Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoa! Stop!_" Anto spoke out as the thought of him actually being in… he shuddered before looking back at his unusual captor. "_Who are you and what are you doing?_"

"**Ahh! Apologies! Your species uses names as identification! I am…**" The psychic Pokémon then blurted out a lot of unexplained sounds, as if indicating that was her name. "**Ah wait, your orifices aren't capable of understanding this. You may refer to me as Kryxialvoimepotark, leading scientist on the frontier of Huwoman studies! Behold the collection of trinkets gathered from all corners of your society!**"

As soon as she said this, a large wall opened up to reveal a large pile of baby toys on one side… and a bunch of ripped up toilets in the other.

"… _Can I just call you Kryx for short?_" Anto started off the conversation.

Much to his dismay, the floating telepathic alien gasped in elation. "**You are shortening my name? Is this the cultural act of 'Nicknaming'!? This must mean we are in the huwoman courting ritual known as flirting! Now you must treat me to dinner and engage in more intimate conversations!**"

"_NONONO! Stop!_" The mute spoke out, shuddering even more at the thoughts running through his head because of this person who is actually worse than Ohko. "_Look, I probably shouldn't ask this, but what exactly are you doing with all of this?_"

Kryx, The Elgyem, pointed one of her hand limbs high as his head and dramatically communicated. "**FOR SCIENCE!**"

Anto's eyes widened. "_Oh Arceus, not another one._"

"**You see, Huwoman…**"

The person quickly interjected. "**My name is Anto, and we call ourselves humans.**"

"**That sounds so bizarre! Anyway, Human,**" Anto face palmed. "**As said before I am a leading scientist in the frontier of Anto studies.**" Anto face palmed again. "**In my research, I have been collecting the most interesting of trinkets that I see your kind use.**"

Anto wanted to say almost everything Kryx said was wrong, and wanted to comment badly about how she was probably viewing humans using toys and or the toilets, but he did not want to deal with this and needed to get back at his friends.

"_Kryx… as… fun… as this was, I want to go back to where you picked me up._"

"**What!? B-but you have a weird and unique signal that I picked up recently! I-I was going to science things… and probe you!**" As if to torment him, Kryx telepathically grabbed a very sharp and alien looking needle from the ceiling and made it point towards Anto uncomfortably.

"_Don't._" Anto leered with his eyes and deadpanned. He sighed. "_Look, Kryx, I'm kind of in the middle of something… like my own study of sorts and I would like to continue. So can you please let me go?_" He worded in such a way that would hopefully appeal to the… science like nature of his rather friendly abductor.

The psychic type Pokémon slumped in her shoulders. "**I suppose it's not very sciencey to stop you from your work...**" She levitated just a little lower.

No.

Kryx sluggishly put away the alien probe. "**I thought I was finally making progress in my research.**"

No. No!

"**I'm sorry Human, I'll never bother you again…**"

Just ignore—just ignore—just ignore—Dang it all!

Anto felt his brain popping. He sighed deeply. "_Listen, Kryx… why are you picking up random things here? And why are you so fixated on humans? Yes humans; my name—that is me right here—is Anto. Not Human. I mean, you're from outer space! I'm sure there are plenty of other planets you can do way more interesting research on! You know like… Black Holes! Those things are a cosmic beauty!_"

Kryx sat down as she did the ship made a tiny little seat right beneath her before she huffed in his seat and folded his arms. "**Everyone likes to study those things… what's so great about the gaps in the universe that swallow everything? It swallowed up my Aurora Compressor Unit when I was part of the Larvae Caste.**" The Alien looked back at Anto excitedly. "**Now Humans! Humans are soooooo amazing! They aren't very smart, but they keep striving to make their primitive technology better each slow progressing day! They are bipedal and physically incompetent compared to their sister species, but they are still capable of keeping evenly with them and sometimes subduing the most capable of them with a small object!**"

Anto listened to Kryx shoot into vivid and boring detail about many things about boring and mundane things about humans that she already knew, sometimes interject to correct or inform her about whatever it was. But the little E.T. went excitedly on, as if this was his passion, and Anto respected that, going for their beliefs no matter what as long as it didn't hurt others.

However, Kryx slowed down. "**Most of all, Humans are never alone. They are almost always seen meeting with other hundreds, maybe thousands of others of their kind every planetary cycle. They… they even have this concept of 'Friends' and 'Family' which are closed nit people that almost always stay with you no matter what. I want to research that… and… I want to have this friendship…**"

"… _You know, you could try to make friends in your homeworld… where ever it is…_" Anto rubbed the back of his head.

The Elgyem alien looked down sadly. "**I'm… not exactly… welcome back in Prinax-35 due to a miscalculation with a Hyper Nova Simulator.**"

"_What's that?_"

"**It was supposed to simulate the power of an exploding Super Nova! … I just wasn't aware I had accidentally primed it…**" She spoke excitedly before sheepishly playing with her hands, making Anto both cringe and be impressed at the implications. "**I assure you we all lived! Our nursery planet on the other hand…**"

Kryx slumped lethargically and woefully into her seat before she pointed to a pedestal with a large white button on it. "**… You can go home now. Press that and you'll be back where I picked you up.**"

Anto looked as the little alien seemed to be in state of depression. She just seemed to be giving up… and she obviously didn't mean to accidentally destroy a planet. I mean… even aliens can make mistakes right?

The amnesiac looked between the button and his previous captor.

Anto had a huge feeling he would regret this. "_Hey Kryx. You know… there isn't anything saying that we both can get what we want._"

The shine in the Elgyem's eyes and other body parts glowed brighter all of a sudden. "**Excuse me?**"

"_You want to learn more about humans right? And I need to get back home, but can't we both do that in the same time?_"

"**What are you suggesting?**" The little psychic levitated back in the air.

Anto inhaled deeply, as if trying to ask himself why he was doing this before looking back at Kyrx. "_Why don't you come with me? Learn how humans are up close and personal. … Why don't you become my friend?_"

"**Y-Y-Y-Y-You're m-ma-mak-making m-me your… friend…?**"

Anot nodded. "_Yeah. Come travel with me, and I can show you how humans and friendship works to the best of my ability. It's really not as fantastic as you think, but..._" Anto thought back to all of his friends he's met so far. "_You learn to appreciate them._"

"**SENSATIONAL!**" Elgyem whooped as she floated around Anto excitedly and quickly. "**This shall be the best experiment of all times! And we must start right away!**"

"_Alright, so come with me back to the warp—_"

"**There is no time for that!**"

"_Wait what?_" Anto raised his brow in confusion before he saw the escape button fade back into the floor and a new giant red button appear nearby Kryx. Now his eyes widened in shock. "_What have I done?_"

"**To truly understand the Human Experience, I must be like my collective cousins of this world! Goodbye my loyal spaceship! You were very comfy!**" The psychic type cried out before slamming her limb into the button.

In one instant, the entire spaceship disappeared, what was once a giant cloud over Driftveil City was now instantly gone, making some people look up in surprise at the sudden lack of shade.

With her spaceship somehow no longer existing in the physical plane, Kryx felt the wind rush to her form. "**Ahh! Taste that earth turbulence, Anto! … Anto? Anto, where have you disappeared to?**"

"_Kryx, help!_" The psychic type felt the psionic scream coming from beneath her, towards the ground around a good ten thousand feet in the air above from.

"_It hasn't even been a month since last time I fell from the sky dang it!_" Anto screamed as he tried to stabilize his body to reach maximum wind resistance. Wait, why was it that he was actually an expert in falling to one's death?

"**Anto! I'm not sure if you realize, but Earth has an above average gravitational pull than most planets its size! Falling from this height will cause your body to explode when impacted on the ground.**" Kryx, mentally yelling back as she floated beside the falling Anto.

"_Kryx! I'm not capable of levitation like you are! I'm literally going to die if you don't help me!_" The boy screamed back.

"**I see! Do not fear first friend and fellow scientist! I shall help you!**" Then the psychic type cried out before blasting Anto with some kind of psychic energy.

However, the boy noticed one thing, or rather two: he was still falling, and he was still accelerating.

"_Kryx, I thought you were helping me!_"

"**I am! This psionic shield is designed to absorb most of the kinetic energy you'll have when you hit the ground!**" The being proudly beamed as she continued to fall with Anto.

"_What do you mean absorb __most__ of the energy?!_"

"**Oh some if it might still go through, stupid unpredictable variables… but you won't expire at least!**"

Anto briefly wondered why on earth he met with all of the weirdest Pokémon out there. "_Why don't you just use your powers to stop me from falling!?_"

Kryx's eyes widened before she stopped mid air in a stunned manner, despite Anto continually falling. "**I 'can' do that!**" She gasped at the revelation.

Anto gave a deadpan look as he saw Kryx momentarily lost in thought as he fell to his not death at an alarming rate. "_No seriously, I would like to see how this could possibly get worse._"

What the falling amnesiac didn't know was that there was a group of people beneath him…

Ghetsis was talking to Clay, the Driftveil Gymleader, about releasing one of the Six sages back to him.

"Huh, funny, I thought you had a face cast?" Clay chuckled lightly and fixed his hat as he looked towards Ghetsis on a wheelchair.

The green haired man simply scoffed. "I have simply healed. Why just today my bandages were removed and I can finally feel my jaw again, if not for that ruffian who stole a bike and ran over my face…"

The ground type gym leader held in a smile at the remembrance of such a strange kid. Then something caught his attention in the air.

Ghetsis didn't seem to notice this and went on talking to him, "Let me get down to business. I've come to pick up my associates who are in your care." He motioned to one of the Seven Sages standing beside Clay, Zinzolin. Then he continued on with talking about why they should be let go and to what they were doing here.

However, one of the Plasma members, curious as to what he was looking at, glance over to where the Gymleader's view was. His eyes widened and he gasped and shouted, "Lord Ghetsis, look out!"

Ignoring this eerily familiar situation, Ghetsis looked up to what they were pointing to—only to see what a close up of an object falling over 100 mph was like.

Everyone flinched and even felt that type of pain as they saw the teen-age boy shaped object crash and explode right on top of the man in a wheel chair.

Out of the dust, Anto came out coughing, and a little dizzy, but looking quite impressed. "_Wow! That shield actually worked! I don't feel in horrible pain! Are things are finally looking up for me!?_"

It was then Anto noticed that he was right in front of the Driftveil Gym, with a guy who looked like a cowboy along with someone who seemed dressed up as one of Team Plasma's Rood, perhaps they were in the same rank? Anyway, the two men were both staring dumbfounded at Anto until he noticed that they weren't really looking at him, but something behind him.

Anto turned back and saw a rather familiar site of a group of horrified looking Team Plasma members crowding around what looked to be an injured man.

"Lord Ghetsis!?"

Holy crap Déjà vu.

It was then that one of the grunts looked over to Anto and pointed to him with righteous fury. "IT'S HIM! THE CHILD WHO HURT LORD GHETSIS BEFORE! GET HIM!"

The young trainer thought that without a doubt this event was eerily familiar to him.

Anto bolted away from the group, mentally cursing everything he could possibly cruse. I mean seriously? He accidentally maimed the same guy twice in different areas? What did the universe want form him dang it?!

However, he didn't notice that Black along with a boy wearing glasses were staring at him as he ran back into the city chased by a group of Team Plasma and their Pokémon.

"Anto?" Black asked but couldn't say it fast enough as Anto dashed with the speed of an Olympic runner away from the angry mob.

"Black? Was that the trainer you were talking about?" The black haired and glasses wearing friend of Black asked.

"Yes Cheren. I just thought… he was on the ground last time I saw him."

The other boy fixed his glasses. "Well, I suppose you weren't kidding at all when you told me he was a trouble magnet."

At this moment, Cheren received a call from one of his friends, White.

* * *

White was talking into her cellphone as she, Wes, and Jamie were hurriedly walking into Driftveil City with all of their Pokémon. "Hey Cheren, I need you to send a message to Black if you see him. … Oh he's right there? Can you give the phone to him please?" She waited before a familiar voice called out to her. "… Black! Anto's gone missing! This is exactly why you need a cellphone—wait? What? … I'm sorry, what!?" The girl spoke out in utter shock. The brunette put a hand on her phone and looked over to the rest of her companions. "Black says he and Cheren Just saw Anto!"

Everyone brightened up, while Wes smiled and rolled his eyes. Jamie spoke up. "Well where is he!?"

"**Umm everyone?**" The group looked to Takezo standing on top of a fire hydrate. "**I believe I spot our formerly missing comrade.**"

They all followed to where the small normal type was pointing and were in shock as they saw a large angry mob heading towards their direction.

Wes squinted his eyes as he looked at what the angry mob was following and spotted a very, very familiar sight of Anto running for his life.

"How did that happen?" Jamie asked in shock.

"And why is he being Chased by Team Plasma… again!?" White screamed as she did recall watching the first time this happening when Anto accidentally ran over one of their preachers.

The Snagger of the group noticed something off. "Hold up. Is anyone noticing that group of angry medieval roleplayers are heading directly towards us?"

"_There you guys are! Hurry up and RUN!_" Anto's mental voice reached them as he very athletically ran past them. Everyone else looked at him before noticing the rather blood thirsty look in every single mob member whether Pokémon or Human.

"Oh I forgot to mention!" Wes started off as he started running with everyone else after Anto. "Be prepared to _run a lot_ when you're with Anto!"

"Wait what!? This is actually a daily occurrence!?" Jamie screamed over the yelling mob now after them as well.

"Happens more along the lines of three times a week so far, hope you're physically fit!" Wes screamed before running faster as he saw the mob gaining up, Jamie and White looked at each other with looks that screamed 'what have we gotten ourselves into?' before running even faster away from the group of angry people.

White then recalled she still was with Black on the phone. "Black, I'll call you back! I'm going to be busy for a while!"

* * *

After finally losing those psychopaths, the group were gasping for breath behind the Driftveil Bazaar. However, by the time they lost them, it was already sun down.

"Anto," Jamie started after catching his breath a bit. "What the heck was that!? Where did you go?!"

Before Anto could explain, a bright purple flash appeared and Kyrx revealed herself in front of everyone. "**Ahh there you are Anto! Now we shall begin our experiments!**"

The humans all looked in shock at the new psychic type before all zooming in onto Anto for an explanation.

Anto's eyes narrowed to no one in particular. "_I got freaking abducted by aliens._"

Wes, his Pokémon, and Anto's party, all raised their brows. White and everyone else all just gapped.

The alien beside him cooed excitedly before taking out a rather strange looking needle that looked to be alive. "**That reminds me! Anto, can I probe you now?**"

"_NO!"_

Well, at least Anto should consider this: his misadventure today felt like—not relating to actual time—the shortest one yet.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

***For those wondering... this little cameo is by my good friend MangoLimePie and his take on Pokemon Black and White 2 games. I joked about this because he wrote his character to have good luck, while mine has the worst one imaginable, and we didn't mean to be so polar opposites in that department. It's a good story, you guys should go check him out. The story those two characters star in is "Icy Wrath". **

**A small filler adventure on the new group's way to Driftveil City! We meet Anto's new Pokémon: "Kryxialvoimepotark" or Kyrx for short. She's Anto's first actual Psychic Pokémon and she's an alien trying to probe him! Oh Anto… you have no idea what she's actually capable of, and I can't wait to show you all how living wither is going to be.**

**To ease up on the guy, he's going to be challenging Clay in the next chapter, Arceus knows I've been keeping all of you longer in Nimbasa City than I would like. Plus I don't really see much reason for Anto to explore the city here around this time. Maybe it will be briefly noted around here.**

**If one has noticed, most of Anto's Pokémon are natives from Unova. With the exception of Sentinel, I originally planned Anto to have all Unova Native Pokémon. My reason for this was rather simple: Anto would be in Unova for the first good half of his journey, so it stood to reason to give him Unova Pokémon. Some people might not like the fact that first time gen 5 games had all original Pokémon, but other have pointed out that it really even out the playing field and renewed the whole Pokémon experience, it felt like I had first picked up Pokémon Silver again for the first time for me. **

**As fun as it would be to write more reasons to have more of my favorite Pokémon from other regions come to Unova, it felt kind of cheap honestly. Just getting a Pokémon I want because I want it? So When writing up the story, I had to actually look up the list of Pokémon in Unova and choose my (6) five Pokémon that I wanted in my tale. Honestly? I found it to be way more fun with these restrictions. I actually had to pick and choose which team I wanted, and how they would be! It got me really excited in that I couldn't wait to bring them all together.**

**You guys should see the last Pokémon I planned. Trust me, Anto's collective family of crazy are not done just yet.**

**Another thing I wanted to talk about was a little running gag so far in this tale. Did you spot it?**

**Anto once more fell on top of Ghetsis.**

**Takezo was right, things do seem to repeat themselves around Anto. And Running gags will be abused to the point they will no longer be funny! (And let's just say I'm planning something a little… psychological… with this gag.) **

**Oh! Wait! Since this came a little late, (Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas!) Happy New Year guys. It's actually fitting that this story, the one I first uploaded in 2015, gets to be my last uploaded chapter of 2015. And I didn't even mean that. Here's to hoping you all enjoy next year, may it be better than the last!**

**Thank you for reading and please support this story with a review, favorite and/or follow.**


	29. Ep 29: We're Messed Up

Episode 29: A Thank You for "Them".

* * *

She was feeling cold as she visited Snowbelle City that day. Despite wearing a thick jacket that bundled her up, she still shivered when she stopped moving in the snow for one second. So her answer? Don't stop moving.

That was something her parents wish she would stop doing.

"***! Be careful!" The mother warned sweetly until the young girl fell into slippery ice face first.

The young girl started tearing up. It was painful and it was so cold.

The mother scooped up her child and hugged her close to her chest. "Now what did I just say?"

The young girl stopped crying as she felt the warmth of her mother. She smiled and snuggled closer to the soothing embrace…

[Years later…]

She was feeling cold as she stood under the heavy rain. Despite wearing a rain coat and holding an umbrella, she still felt shivers as she read the two newly dug gravestones in front of her. She didn't know what else to do…

"Mom… Dad…" Her voice cracked.

She started crying, all alone in the cold with no one left to help her.

* * *

[?]

"Yo pops, I'm bored!"

The father smiled as he continued his work on the desk. "***, you said that two minutes ago."

"Noooo," The young boy drawled as he stared lazily at the ceiling from lying down on the couch. "It was two minutes and 36… 37 seconds ago."

The busy father chuckled and turned to his bored son. "Well then, how about you help me out with this new fangled contraption, eh?"

The boy quickly got up and got close to his dad as he took out another magnifying glass.

The father fixed his glasses before he made a showy display of cracking his hands for a warm up. "Alright, Slick, let me show you how a master works his magic…"

* * *

[?]

"Again! Again!" The little girl cried out excitedly as her mother tucked her to bed.

"Really? ***, I've told that story four times already. It's getting really late."

"B-But… I like it when you read me stories," The small girl as she brought her blanket closer to her face. "And you aren't always here…"

The mother frowned slightly for a second before lovingly kissing her daughter's forehead and rubbing it gently. "Hey it won't be for long I promise. And who knows? One day, I won't be away from home, and instead you'll be out there with me—maybe even helping me out at work."

"Really?!" The small girl gushed.

"Yep." The mother smiled. She would later realize how much she underestimated her daughter's passion for both her work and herself.

* * *

[?]

"It's alright kid…" He spoke weakly as he rubbed the head of his son. His own father meant a lot to both him and his grandson. He knew it was almost time for his dad to pass on, but it still hurt to say the least.

The child still sniffed as he placed a flower on the coffin.

His father dried his eyes and kneeled to his son's face with the brightest smile he could muster. "Come on, ***, it's going to be alright!"

The young boy rubbed his eyes. "Dad… are… are you going away too?"

"… How about I tell you a little something?" He spoke softly but his smile became more genuine and was strengthened. "Did you know that your grampa isn't gone?"

The small child sniffed. "… He's not?"

"No, no," The father poked the chest of his young son. "He's right here. And that stubborn oaf will be with you no matter what, I promise ya."

"He is?"

"Not just him kiddo; me, your mom, and anybody that touches that waaayyy too big heart of yours will always be there, no matter what."

"No matter what?" The boy asked with hope filling in those huge eyes of his that may be a bit too big even for his head.

The dad chuckled. "Trust me, *** my boy, not even forgetting by memory will make them leave."

* * *

~Wake up in the morning feeling like P—

"Panic! Flee! Save yourselves!"

Anto's eyes snapped open as the first thing he woke up was the sound of terror and people screaming. A fine way to start his morning he might add. He quickly got up from his bed, still wearing rather plain long pajamas and his hair gracefully taking a magnificent bed hair style of pointing every single direction possible.

As he stood up from his bed to put on his socks and shoes, his other Pokémon woke up.

"**What's going on?**" Lily asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"_I don't know! People just started screaming…. Where's Kryx?_" Anto slowed down after realizing that only four of his five Pokémon were currently in the room.

Chaos abound and a missing Pokémon that was a little 'eccentric'? Not the most comforting of circumstances…

They were all distracted when the screams from below got worse, one high pitched scream sounded like Nurse Joy!

Anto and his Pokémon bolted out of their room, racing down the stairs as some of the other trainers and his friends were poking their heads down the hall.

"Anto?!" White cried out as the mute raced by her standing out her door.

"_No time to explain White!_" The Amnesiac yelled before continuing on.

He and his Pokémon slid as they entered into the main lobby. To all of their shock: the Pokémon Healing Machine had grown metallic spider limbs with its machine cords all twisted up together to form tentacle like objects that scattered around and grabbed several bystanders nearby, including Nurse Joy.

Its light was lit up in two different directions in such a way that it looked to have eyes and the panel where you usually place six Poké Balls

"What happened to the machine!?" Nurse Joy yelled before she was swung around by one of the cords.

"**Anto!**"

The mute saw that on the other side of the rampaging machine, being tied up by another cord tentacle, Kryx was being flailed around.

"_Oh not this again_—_Kryx!?_" Anto shouted in surprise. "_What's going on!?_"

"**I-Iiii trriiieeddd to maaakeee the machhhine more e-efficient!**" Kyrx mentally projected as she was being swayed around wildly.

The machine looked towards Anto and his Pokémon before somehow roaring at them.

"_How is this more efficient!?_" Anto cried before his party split to avoid a metal spider leg from crushing the spot they all were on. "_OK fine! Takezo, cut the cords! Lily, catch the hostages! Sentinel, distract it! Ohko, wait until everyone's clear then punch it."_

His Pokémon moved quickly, Sentinel froze some of the legs in place, which caught its attention as Takezo primed his blade to slash the tentacles carrying some people. Lily used her Magical Leaf attack to catch and move the others into safety. When Takezo and Lily freed Kryx, Sentinel backed off behind Ohko who clenched his fist and punched the machine right through the wall, smashing it an leaving a huge hole in the center before it sparked and twitched to life before dying down.

The extraterrestrial Elgyem floated nearby Anto. "**I see, next time I shall tone down the Neonic Voratla Amplifier**…" She mused.

"_Kryx please don't work on other people's machines. You need permission to do that. And please, please, please! I do not want another repeat of last night._" He begged as he rubbed his forehead hard at the far more insane events that had transpired last night.

The psychic type tilted her head slightly. "**Permission? What is this… permission?**"

"_We're going to have another long talk now, aren't we?_"Anto recalled considering earlier last night where he was especially tired of trying to convince this certain Pokémon and cram as much basic knowledge as much as he could before he was completely drained… along with explaining it to Ohko and Sentinel.

Then the event happened that he wished didn't happen.

It was times like these he wishes he got back in his bed and slept the day away.

"Hey!" The mute looked over to Nurse Joy getting back up and looking rather disheveled. She looked uncharacteristically frustrated and angry towards the boy. "Was that your Pokémon that caused the machine to go crazy?"

At this moment, the other previous hostages glared at Anto but looked slightly dizzy from the ordeal still. (Ignoring the fact that they were also saved by him.)

Anto shook his head slowly… before bolting back upstairs before the other trainers could get their bearings.

The pseudo telepath packed his belongings for the day before sneaking out the center a little early that morning.

[One hour and contained explosion later…]

"_Alright Kryx_," Anto coughed and dusted himself off from a mishap with Kryx trying to 'tweak' a toaster. "_From now on, I'm keeping you away from human appliances._"

"**But I must learn how they work! That object known as a toaster was able to produce heat from electricity without a Convert Cell!**" The ash covered Pokémon cried out as she floated around Anto.

The boy had been recently kicked out (Or ran away) from a breakfast diner due to the fact Kryx, in her zealous passion for all earth objects, snuck into the kitchen and made all appliances spontaneously combust and explode.

Then fix themselves up… then explode again.

After that third debacle, Anto has been walking around town and trying to explain things to Kryx not to be so 'enthusiastic' about messing with technology from this planet.

"_Kryx, please. … Can you at least ask my permission before trying to make an experiment? I don't want you to do what you did to your Poké Ball._" The simple red and blue ball Anto originally bought for her literally walked up and ran away. Somehow the alien messed with the technology from the inside of the sphere and manipulated the machine to have artificial life and metallic spider legs. Anto was also warned that there was a slight possibility that said rogue Poké Ball possibly/maybe had sworn vengeance on human kind for being the inferior race…

That was one of the longer nights Anto had trying to chase that blasted tiny sphere across town to prevent him from absorbing all of Driftveil City's electronic power in order to hack into all of the world's computers and force every single satellite to fall on the most heavily populated and defended areas of the world. Anto and his Pokémon were the only ones present stop the maniacal, palm-sized sphere's plans and did a rather climatic battle in a junkyard (Which involved Break dancing, Chess, Karaoke, and Anto singing despite being mute). Only for The rogue Poké Ball in the end to realize that beauty of human faults and give a noble sacrifice to stop the countdown before the virus knocked down all satellites in the world. Kryx cried for it after it made its noble sacrifice; Anto started considering if it was possible for him to start drinking in his age?

Oh right, yeah. That adventure happened, and Anto technically saved the world (and endangered it) all in one night, but it wasn't interesting at all.

Regardless, Anto held her new container, a Premier Ball, in his palm and told the psychic alien not to tamper with it in such a way that wouldn't make it move or potentially harm him, preferably both, but he had a sinking feeling that was asking for too much.

"Yo, mute!" Wes walked up to him with Jamie walking behind him. "Still having amnesia?"

"_I wish my amnesia applied to events after waking up in that Pokémon Center._" Anto answered back but was glad to see a friendly face.

"You always say that." Wes pointed out.

"_It always happens and makes me want to say it._" The boy countered back.

Wes shrugged his shoulders, seemingly taking that comment as a regular conversation. "So what are you going to do now?"

"_After last night,_" Anto fought the urge to sigh tiredly."_I'm going to stay away from machines for a while. Probably work on my battle with Clay. Lily is an obvious option. Ohko is going in because ground types usually have a rock double type, and there are some steel dual types as well. My third option is Sentinel due to his ability to use ice, and from then on, I'll see what I can do from there._" Anto explained.

"Well I heard that was a swap meet today, so I was heading there." Wes explained casually.

"I heard about it as well," Jamie added in. "I wanted some more souvenirs while I was still in Unova."

The mute gave the older boy a deadpan look. "_A swap meet?_"

"Oh don't give me that look! I can totally go in there without stealing a thing!" Wes countered back, making Jamie stare at the Snagger.

Anto folded his arms. "_Wes, I didn't even say anything about stealing._"

"Well you're mute, so usually I don't expect you to say a thing, but there you go talking and communicating normally anyway. If anything, I should be disappointed in you!" The boy from Orre argued back sarcastically.

"_Get used to it. At least you aren't some kind of cosmic comedic relief for the universe._" The amnesiac smirked but rolled his eyes.

"Wow, is this how the conversations between the two of you usually go?" Jamie asked.

"Mostly it's the same but it varies in different levels of sarcasm and whining." Wes answered the newcomer before looking to Anto. "So you coming?" Wes asked.

Anto thought about it for a bit. "… _Thanks for the offer but nah, I was going to train a bit before going… hey, where's White?"_

Jamie pointed towards the end of town. "I think she went towards the gym."

The mute raised his brow in surprise. "_She's going to the gym? I thought she stopped making challenges?_"

"Well she went anyway." Wes said rather plainly, but there was a slight undertone to his voice. Anto saw that there was something more serious in the tone of his voice. He may have been alluding that something was off with the brunette.

"_I'll go check on her. Try not to get into trouble at the swap meet._" The amber eyed boy called.

"Hey, causing trouble is your job, not mine." Wes joked back before Anto and Kyrx made their way.

"**Anto?**" The psychic type asked as they were a bit away from Jamie and Wes.

"_Yeah Kryx?_"

"… **Humans are strange…**"

"_What makes you say that?_" Anto slowed down in his walking pace and looked concerned to his new friend.

"**From what I was able to understand from my translator, I understood the conversation just fine… but… I felt that the dialogue between you and Wes seemed… to have excess…**"

Anto paused for a second and thought about what she had just said. "_Humans are like that Kryx; it's not just through language can we express ourselves._"

"**That sounds very wise.**"

"_I learned that all from my grampa—…_" Anto froze as that Freudian Slip came out. His… Grampa?

"**Anto?**" The psychic type inquired.

"_S-Sorry," _He shook his head._ "Let's go to White._"

* * *

[Meanwhile…]

Jamie was left to silence as he and Wes walked in the swap meet, just window shopping and looking at whatever oddities were available here. There was a rather impressive amount of object here he had to admit, he thought he saw a bundle of rare candies being sold somewhere along with evolutionary stones, fossils, and other not so Pokémon related objects such as clothes, bed frames, lawn mowers, skate boards, and even a grandfather clock.

Jamie stopped briefly and turned back to Wes. "Wes? Something wrong?"

For once, the boy clad in blue did not answer back. He looked almost hypnotically at the old but obviously still working grandfather clock. It kind of stood out, but that was because it was beautiful. The wood around it looked dusty, but beneath the dust, it looked lovingly polished. The chimes in the body of grandfather clock were revealed to be silver behind a beautiful ornate and mosaic glass that looked to have a Tailow and Pidgey etched into them. Then there was the clock itself, you could see the black hands of minutes and hours pointing to the exact time it was at this very moment, but the seconds hands was making this wonderful and soothing ticking noise every time it moved. You could even see the gears behind the time counters because it also was see through. You could see silver chromed gears working together beautifully.

At this, the vendor of this stand came out to greet the two of them. He was a rather lanky, but small man with purple hair and huge round glasses. He wore a simple collar yellow shirt that had a front pocket and wore khaki pants. "Ahh, I see you are interested in this beauty! A wonderful grandfather clock supposedly made by a master craftsman!"

Wes seemed to ignore the vendor and walk towards the clock almost hypnotically, which Jamie found to be rather strange. Why of all things was Wes so attracted to a grandfather clock? Granted it did look beautiful… but why was Wes so interested in it?

The boy from Orre stared at the clock's face; he wiped some of the dust away from the face and he saw a see-through reflection looking back at him. He stared at it as if he was completely in a different world.

"Wes?" Jamie called out again.

The Snagger turned to the vendor of this stand. "How much is this?"

"It's worth 10,000!" The vendor beamed with pride but the blue clad boy didn't seem to be really listening.

Jamie raised his hand because something didn't quite click with him. "Why are you selling something obviously professional looking in a swap meet? Wouldn't it be better if you sold it online or something?" The note pad said.

The vendor looked nervous and slightly panicked at the rather valid point brought up by the boy from Kalos.

"Well, you know… Internet these days, y-you can't always trust them at first glance ya know? Gotta make sure you're selling off the real deal? So what? You're both trainers ain't cha? I'm sure you can buy this baby if you pool your cashings!" He wiped the sweat of his brow with his arm.

"Still though, 10000? Isn't that a lot? How do we know you aren't scamming us?" Jamie narrowed his eyes.

"It's real alright," Wes finally spoke which kind of surprised everyone in how distant he sounded. "The wood crafted to make this has over a dozen bits of hardwoods and veneers. Cherry, Crotch Figured Mahogany, and Boxwood to name a few. The decorative polished brass lyre pendulum features a cast center disk with a spun silver background. Complementing polished brass finished weight shells are embellished with decorative bands with a silver-tone background. The gears have been polished to shine and have traces of Steelix Chrome in that they are sturdy enough to last a oong time, yet are beautiful to look at if polished correctly. The glass that was used a see through case was hand designed and melted along with the arts to fit the wood carefully, and the numeral dial features custom cast corners, center, and moon arch ornaments unique to this clock."

Everyone was silent as Wes listed off the details of such a clock. The vendor whistled in admiration.

"Dang kid, you sure don't look like it, but you're definitely a clock expert." The vendor admitted.

"Still, even a 10,000 is too much. The highest value this is worth was 6000, you're over charging." Wes spoke out.

"Erk!" The vendor winced. "Ok fine, 6500! But that's as low as I'll go!"

Jamie seemed to continually notice something off about the vendor. "Why are you in such a hurry to sell it?"

"O-Oh? A-am I? Apologizes, I guess I'm still a little jumpy from my travels…"

"Where did you get this clock anyway?" Wes asked, his eyes narrowing with his hand still placed on the window sil.

"U-Uh well I got it from a good friend?" He glanced around worryingly.

Before the two could question even further how obviously dubious this dealer was, they heard a scream.

"There he is! Get him!"

* * *

Anto saw White looking at the front of the gym almost wistfully before her phone, which was already opened up in her hand, started ringing. She seemed to sigh before talking into it, Anto catching terms that probably meant that White was helping out with her mother's company.

He recalled Kryx for a minute before simply waiting for White to finish her call. It didn't take as long as he expected and White ended her call rather early before sighing.

"_White?_"

The girl wearing the same colored hat as her namesake looked back surprised. "O-Oh Anto!? What are you doing here?"

"_Well I was going to the gym… are you really quitting the gym challenges?_" Anto asked.

White put away her phone. "I'm not quitting the challenges, I'm just putting it off till next year… I mean it can wait till my mom gets better." She started walking towards the cliff nearby the Gym.

The mute boy followed after her and rubbed the back of his head. "_I'm really sorry about that_."

"Why are you apologizing? You weren't the witch who hurt her." White looked at the boy in surprise as they both stood at the cliff facing the large river.

"_They only did that to go after me, didn't they? I can't help but feel I'm not just causing trouble for myself, but others._"

White looked sadly out to the distance in front of them. "Now don't think that, Anto…. I admit that I was very horrified when I saw my mother get shot… sometimes, I still have nightmares about it… but you shouldn't feel bad about it. In fact, it's probably my fault for not being with my mom as much as I should have been."

"_No it isn't!_ Anto quickly answered.

"Now do you see how I feel when you tried to take the blame?" White looked on to the amber eyed boy.

Anto looked down to the water where vague images of his reflection where showing. "_I guess that was kind of dumb at me… but why do I still feel so guilty about it?_"

White sat down on the cliff before Anto shortly followed and sat down just a little away from her.

They both sat on the cliff and stared at the water in front of them in silence.

"Hey Anto?" White started as Anto looked back at her to see her getting back up. "Do you want to battle?"

The mute blinked. "_Huh?_"

"Come on," She motioned him to get up from sitting down. "Let's have a battle, two on two."

"_What for?" _The boy got up.

"Just… have a battle with me. I still owe you one for helping out with the movie." White spoke as she brought out a Poké Ball.

Anto slowly took out Lily's Poké Ball. "_Speaking off, how was that movie?_"

"It's still in its editing phase. Might come out later this year…" White spoke out as she went a good distance away from where Anto was.

Anto took another unsure glance back to White. "_You sure about this_?" Anto asked with the Poké Ball in his palm.

"Anto, yes! Now come on out, Sawsbuck!" White cried out as the seasonal Pokémon appeared in her Autumn form.

The boy gripped the sphere in his hand as he reclined his hand backward. He didn't know what the purpose of this battle was, but as he let go of the sphere into the air, Anto decided that would be for later. He was going to give his all in this one.

* * *

Jamie had to admit he honestly didn't know what to expect when he first arrived in Unova when in comparison to his home region of Kalos. However, he was not expecting that among the potential differences (and similarities) the two regions had, being caught in a gang fight would be one of them.

Apparently that vendor both he and Wes had originally met was actually a traveling smuggler and conman/swindler, name Holsan and he just so happened to con two very prominent mafia groups from the Kanto and Johto region.

"H-How did you all find me?!" Holsan cried out in surprise as a group of trainers with Kanto native Pokémon surrounded them. "I even heard Unova was currently on lockdown!"

"Well that's actually lucky for us, Holsan," One of the cockier gang members spoke out. "We came in here before the attack at Nimbasa City since we heard you were on your way here. Now about all of that money you owe us…"

Despite there being two different gangs, they both closed in around Holsan, Jamie, and Wes.

Holsan tried to placate the offending parties. "Oh don't be like that guys! We can all talk this out like civil men, and I was really going to give you the money!"

"Save it Hols! We're better off bringing you to the boss! Either of them will do!" A man from the Johto side called out before everyone pulled out their Poké Ball into their hands.

"Doesn't this type of thing happen to Anto?!" Jamie yelled out as he slowly reached for his Poké Balls.

"I'm starting to think it's contagious." Wes spoke out.

"Hey!" One of the members called out as he was in the tent Holsan was selling from. "He was trying to sell our stuff!" He and his Hitmonchan spoke as they walked closer to the tent, particularly the grandfather clock Wes was so interested in.

Wes threw out his party and pointed angrily at the man. "Don't you dare touch that! Espeon, Psychic!" he angrily cried out before his Pokémon pushed away the two.

At that trigger, everyone started launching attacks all across the place.

Jamie threw out his party, consisting of his Fletchinder, Sylveon, and Golurk. "Flecthinder, scatter with Double Team! Golurk, Phantom Force! Sylveon, Dazzling Gleam!"

His three Pokémon burst into action to counter some of the flying blasts launched by other opposing Pokémon.

Wes and Jamie mostly lead the fight, taking on the grunts from attacking them, and were handling them quite well. But neither of them noticed that Holsan was slowly sneaking away from the brawl.

The smuggler crawled on the floor as chaos was tearing the now empty place apart, but he kept his head down to avoid getting hit by a stray Pokémon attack. However, as he kept moving, his head bumped into something, he looked up slowly only to see that he had bumped into the legs of a much tougher looking gang member.

"Now, about your payment." The deep voiced thug smiled as he bent over to the smuggler.

Even though the two were doing fairly well against a group of over a dozen other trainers, Jamie and Wes were being pushed back because of how outnumbered they were.

But because there were so many of them, even while they were fighting some of them, others started looting all of the goods Holsan had, even the grandfather clock.

"Everyone!" they all turned to the tough looking gang member with Holsan slung over his shoulder. "I got what we came for! Let's move out before the police come!" He shouted before every one of the ganga members made a break for the back parking lot.

"Wait! Stop!" Wes cried out before some of the last members fired their own attacks that warded the Snagger away so they could escape easier.

After the attacks died down, Wes saw the group of mobs getting away.

"Come back here!" Wes screamed as he ran after them madly.

Jamie was surprised. "Whoa!? What!? Wes, come back! What's with you!?" He shouted as he ran after him.

As they all raced outside, Wes looked over to see around three vans being filled up with people in trinkets from Holsan's tent. The one furthest away was just about to be closed with the main thug leader driving that van. But just before it closed, Wes saw both Holsan and the clock at the back of the truck before it sped away.

The second one shortly followed after, but the last one was picking up the last of the people, and Wes wasn't going to have any of that. His own Pokémon raced out quickly as Wes immdeaitly pointed to the last van about to leave.

"Espeon, freeze that last Van!" While his Pokémon were confused, they still all did what they were told. "Wartortle, kick them all out of the seat!" Wes spoke out and the ninja Delta faded into the shadows and appeared into the drivers section.

Wes and his Pokémon ran up to the van, with Wes recalling Zwelious and Umbreon and with Jamie shortly after him.

"Wes, what's going on!?" He yelled out again before he saw a bunch of thugs being thrown out of thier seats and Wes jacking the van of his own and following after them.

Jamie looked towards Golurk after returning his Sylveon. "Can you give me a lift? Fletchinder, go after him!" Jamie called out as he got carried by his large ghost type Pokémon and his flying type raced after Wes.

As the giant ghost carried him, Jamie wondered what the heck was with Wes? What was with him when he saw that clock?

As he was being carried over, he saw that Wes was driving furiously after the other two vans and the front two vans opened their backs. Some of the gang members had their Pokémon out and started shooting at Wes' van, but the attacks were repelled by a bright wall of light, which meant that Wes was using a dual move to prevent the attacks from stopping him. However, instead of slowing down, Wes's car sped up towards the very front one with Holsan in it.

"What is with him!?" Jamie cried out. "Fletchinder take care of the guys in the second van! Golurk, bring me closer to the first Van!"

With a dive, Fletchinder dropped before suddenly raising himself and launching himself at full speed towards the second van, forcing everyone there to start focusing their fire on the speedy bird Pokémon.

Jamie heard alarm bells ring throughout the city. Did this mean that the police of this town were coming soon? There was also one more thing that caught the boy's attention especially since he was up so high in the sky. There was this huge cranking sound he didn't quite understand but sounded awfully familiar.

When Jamie looked out, he saw what was making that large cranking sound, the Driftveil Draw Bridge was slowly being raised. He quickly looked down, but saw that all the vans were still heading towards there that direction!

"Oh this can't be good."

Meanwhile, the van in the front simply upped their speed after they turned the corner and raced towards the drawbridge.

Wes saw this as he was driving after them. "Oh this can't be good."

Espeon, sitting right in the seat beside Wes looked kind of concern. "**Uhh Wes?**"

As the draw bridge started to rise, the front van started to move even faster. It even came to the point of it ramming right through some of the wooden posts that would have stopped the car from moving forward. At the sudden movement of the continually speeding car, the other members riding at the back jumped off, as if they didn't want to ride that crazy train anymore.

Inside the van, the thug who had capture Holsan was speeding up his drive. The man believed he would be able to make the jump and escape. As he saw people jumping off along with some items and such, he simply thought of them as cowards.

The second van had already stopped in their tracks as the draw bridge was already reaching a 45 degree angle.

Wes saw this and gritted his teeth. He looked at the back of the first van, and the items slowly started falling out of the opening. His eyes fell on the grandfather clock and then he crushed on the accelerator.

Jamie up ahead saw what Wes was doing. He looked towards the first van and saw that Holsan's unconscious body was still there. "Golurk, get closer to that van! We need to get Holsan!" It was true he may have been a smuggler, but the poor guy didn't deserve to die.

Not to mention the draw bridge kept rising higher.

Back at the front, the gang member was now starting to have second thoughts, but instead simply pressed on the gas pedal as the bridge was now reaching over 60 degrees.

Wes knew he was too far, so he looked to Espeon. "We're getting off! No way we can follow them!" He said as he opened up the car and jumped towards the large fence at the edge of the road. With help from both Wartortle and Espeon, the Snagger grabbed on to the fence as he was slowly feeling gravity pull him down.

The last van started falling back down with no one behind its wheel and started rolling back down… right into the second van before everyone got out of the way then making both of them explode.

Wes and Jamie saw that the last van had just jumped off the draw bridge, but because they were so high up, the rest of the junk and Holsan fell off. Not only that, the draw bridges were raised so high , the van was not going to make the Jump. Everyone looked away as the Van crashed into the bridge in another fiery explosion.

Jamie saw Holsan and was able to lead Golurk to catch the guy before he fell into the water. While Wes saw the grandfather clock falling.

"Espeon, catch that clock with Psychic!" He commanded as the psychic Pokémon in his arms started glowing. As the grandfather clock froze in the air, Wes sighed in relief. The Psychic type then tried to slowly bring it closer to them, bringing it back over to the bridge.

"Hey Wes!" The Snagger looked up to Jamie with both his Glurk and Holsan. "What is with you and that clock!?"

Wes hesitated for a second. "It's complicated! But I'll explain when we get down from here, you got room for one more?!" He shouted back.

Jamie rolled his eyes—

"Metal Sound!"

The Golurk winced in pain as he was blasted by an unpleasant sound, forcing him to lose balance and make both Jamie and Holsan fall.

"Jamie!" Wes yelled in panic.

The falling boy was able to grab the very edge of the bridge before he fell, and was seemingly able to grab on to Holsan as well. "AAAH!" He yelled in a high pitched voice as he hung on for dear life.

"Jamie!" Wes yelled before looking to Jamie's Golurk, he was being attacked by a Skymory being ridden by the driver of the van! He must have escaped at the last second.

"That's it Holsan! If you're not going to pay, you're going to pay with your life!" The gang member yelled as he threw another Pokémon out, this time a Pidgeotto. "Skymory, take care of the Golurk! Pidgeotto, take care of Holsan and that kid!"

The bird Pokémon flew towards Jamie. However the normal flying type was interrupted by Jamie's Fletchinder coming to the rescue and warding away the opposing flying type. However, both of Jamie's Pokémon were now busy fending off their opponents and the boy in question was starting to slip.

"Wes! Help!" Jamie cried out.

"Espeon! Grab them with Psychic!" Wes quickly shouted as he tried to make his way climbing up.

"**But Wes! I'll drop the clock if I go for them!**" Espeon spoke out.

"Wait don't!" The Snagger quickly shouted.

Wartortle looked at him. "**Why do you care so much about that object?**"

"It's important to me OK?! I haven't seen it in years!"

"Wes please! I can't hold on!" Jamie yelled back as he felt his muscles burn at trying to hold two people up.

"Wartortle, can't you help any of Jamie's Pokémon out?!" Wes asked almost desperately.

"**I'm sorry Wes, but I'm out of range from here. I'd have to climb up and fire from where Jamie is, but then they might aim for me with Jamie being unprotected!**"

Wes panicked as he looked between Jamie, and the clock, Jamie, and the clock. He closed his eyes and clenched hard at the fence that was holding him and his Pokémon up.

"WWEEESSS!?" Jamie's voice hit a high piercing note as he finally fell.

The Snagger finally decided. "Cruse it all! Espeon, grab Jamie!"

The psychic type lost focus as he grabbed the falling two people with his psychic power. The clock however fell back onto the concrete and smashed into many pieces.

Wes saw how it broke and looked back up to where the gang member was still fighting Jamie's Pokémon. "Wartortle, you're clear. Knock them out of the sky."

Wes' delta Pokémon nodded solemnly before using a Shadow Sneak on the bridge to get to the very top. He launched a rapid succession of Vacuum Wave that knocked the gang member off Skymory, and forced the steel fire type to back off and catch his falling master. Wartortle was about to turn towards Fltechinder's fight until he saw the fire and flying type defeat his opponent in a blaze of fire.

The owner of the two flying types saw his falling flying and normal type after he was caught by his Skymory and recalled him back in his Poké Ball. He looked back at Wes who was galring daggers at him before he decided to escape towards the river.

Wes sighed deeply before seeing Golurk pick up both Jamie and Holson. Espeon let go of both of them, feeling a little tired from all his psychic usages today.

"Good job buddy…" Wes complimented as he looked back down.

[Later...]

Wes was standing over the broken remains of the grandfather clock. He bent to the ground and picked up one of the bent, ornate clock arms and sighed deeply.

Jamie walked up behind him. The police had come now and were rounding up almost every bad guy who caused this chase. "So why where you so fixated on some clock of all things? Sure it was pretty but…"

Wes looked between Jamie and the bent Ornate hand before throwing it into the ocean. "… It used to belong to my dad."

"What?" Jamie repeated in shock.

"My dad was a clock maker, when I was a kid, he used to fix and create all kinds of clocks from digital to grandfather ones. The one that was… just here… was one of his finest works. I thought I would never see it again after I was chased out of my home, but there it was, here in Unova all along." Wes managed to speak truly as he looked at the rest of the remains of the once beautiful clock. "My… my dad is dead. But you should have seen him, he was so proud of this grandfather clock… H-He meant a lot to me and taught me so many things I know now… but I… I was stupid…" For once, the Snagger was starting to choke up at the memory of his dad. His eyes were getting misty before he wiped them dry and sniffed only once. "T-The point was, that after seeing it still in one piece after all these years, I thought I could finally have something to remember my dad by besides my memories. So I just… wanted it back…"

Wes lightly moved a chunk of wood with his foot, his eyes down cast at the piece of work his father once worked so hard to create.

"I know what it's like…" Jamie started. "I… I lost my parents too." He spoke out after chocking on his own words a bit. "Heck, I even lost my brother and I always thought he would be invincible… I was also pretty stupid just looking back…"

Wes seemed to take that information silently.

The two stood together and looked down on the broken clock in front of them.

"Hey! You two!"

The two trainers looked back to see Holsan walking up towards them.

"I thought you would be arrested!?" Jamie called out as he pointed to the smuggler.

"Well yeah, but ever heard of loopholes? No one called me a smuggler, not even you two apparently, and they don't got proof of me ever being dishonest down here in Unova. Technicalities, gotta love em."

It was true now that the two thought about it. They were so focused on explaining the chase to the officers, both Jamie and Wes neglected to mention that Holsan was technically a swindler to the officers, so they thought he was just a innocent bystander used as a hostage.

Wes sighed before looking back at the broken clock. "So why are you still here? I figured you'd want nothing to do with this place after being questioned by the police like we were."

"Well, I may be a…" He looked back at the cops putting the caution tape around. "You-Know-What. But I pretty much owe you guys for saving my life." He fished for his pockets. "Hey, blue kid?"

Wes looked at Holsan strangely. "Excuse me?"

"You really wanted that clock huh?"

Wes just scoffed before laughing it off. "Yeah. Yeah I really did…"

Holsan tossed something quick to the boy from Orre. Catching it with one hand, Wes wondered what was just tossed at him.

"Keep it. I found it in my 'travels'. It looked a lot like the clock, must have been made by the same guy, so I kept it with me. I was originally going to try to make you cough up more money with it after you bought the Grandfather clock, but… consider us even." Holsan smiled.

The smuggler then saluted off before walking casually back to the police, as if this was the first time he was comfortable being around so many officers of the law.

Wes finally looked over to what Holsan had tossed over to him, and his eyes widened in surprise.

It was a beautiful bronze Clock Master Stopwatch (Pocket Watch) etched with gorgeous details of Lugia and Ho-oh mosaics in the front with a light blue chain.

"T-This is…" Wes stared at the thing in his palms in utter disbelief. He quickly opened up the pocket watch and saw another beautiful face of a clock that was see through and had both gold and silver plated gears working in the back ground as the seconds, minute, and hour hands slowly moved around.

Then there was one more thing. At the back of the opening lid, there was this engraving.

"This one is for you, Slick. Don't sell it off a pawn shop."

"Wes?" Jamie looked on with a huge smile appearing on the Snagger's face. "What is that?"

For the first time, in a long time, Wes felt truly relieved and happy. It was like holding the object was like lifting a heavy burden on his shoulders he always wore. He was glad to finally have this back after giving it away all those years ago…

"This," Wes started with his first real smile in years. "This, Jamie, belonged to my dad, Kay, The Master Clockwork, and one of the best people I've ever known."

Jamie smiled for him. He was genuinely glad he had something to remember his parents by.

"By the way Jamie," Wes started off, breaking the mood and making the other brown haired boy with light green eyes look at him strangely. "There's something I want to ask you."

He raised his brow as Wes pointed back to him.

"Are you a girl?"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**There we go, folks.**

**Anto has saved (and endangered) the world: scratch that off the main character bucket list. **

**And for the record: he did it all in one paragraph/flashback sequence.**

***Drops Mic***

**Beat that OC stories that require an entire story to save the world! (Joke-Joke! Do not take this seriously.)**

**Now what else is there to do in this story?**

… "**Find a love interest"?**

… **Uhh…**

**Wow, why is writing about saving the world so easy, but romance is like some kind of foreign language?**

**Anyway, I originally tried to write about fighting Clay for his gym battle, but then as I started writing, this happened instead, so I'm going to have to save that for the next chapter. (It's the second time that happened!)**

**Second the theme of this story are parents. You could obviously tell from the not so subtle hints of this chapter.**

**A shout out for the people who help shape our lives one way or another.**

**Now I'm taking a short break from Anto, and focusing more on White and Jamie as characters. They are the new guys in this group so they would of course need to be focused on soon. (I might do an Interlude on how Summer and Tracey are actually doing later on…)**

**White, I'm going to work on a little later, but what takes most president is Wes and Jamie's little adventure they had today! (Man, it really is always an adventure with Anto and friends huh?) Remember around chapter 5, I briefly referenced Wes having a pocket watch?**

**That's the same one he got back in this chapter! I thought that making Wes' father a Clockwork/Clock maker would fit him well in that he would get his more mechanical side from him because his dad would help him see how things and gears work then get translated to engines and hardware.**

**Soon, very soon, Wes will explain his full backstory of what happened to his dad, and how he lost him, but until then. Let him be happy that he finally got back something he thought he lost forever.**

**Well thanks anyway for letting me speak me mind about this. Thank you all for reading! Please support this fic by reviewing, favoriting, and following.**

**Edit: Thanks to azure blue espeon for making me realize I missed a sentence or few.**

* * *

{Extra: Deleted Conversation}

"_Do you know? When I have nightmares, I laugh like crazy in them?_" Anto talked to Wes as they entered a crowded area.

"Why?"

The Snagger swore he saw both of Anto's lower eye lids twitch. "_Because they are pathetic compared to real life._"

"OK. Anto, I think you're starting to lose it."

"_Can you blame me for it?_"

"Yep."


	30. Ep 30: Tommorow Will Be

**{Author Notes}**

**I was in somewhat of a hurry, so I couldn't remove all the mistakes I wanted to. I'll come back for them later. Sorry.**

* * *

Episode 30: Resetting the Dominoes.

* * *

Jamie just stared.

"Umm Jamie?" Wes raised his brow as he put the pocket watch away. For some reason, Jamie was still in a stupefied manner. "Hello, earth to Jamie?"

"…"

"… OK… should I take that as a yes?"

"…"

"I didn't break you, did I?"

"…"

"… You're a worse conversationalist than Anto—and he's mute."

[One day later…]

All things considered, Anto had a pretty good morning. Kryx was not creating new mechanical abominations on accident. Ohko didn't break anything. (Though his uncanny ability to recognize when an afternoon soap opera was on was unnerving) Sentinel didn't accidentally traumatize anyone. Lily didn't make annoying comments and Takezo was meditating.

So of course, because of all the peace and tranquility, Anto was paranoid as all heck.

"You really need to learn how to relax Anto," White spoke out from the opposite end of the booth she was sharing with Jamie while Wes and Anto were on the opposite end. "I mean just looking at you is making anyone stressed out."

Anto looked over to his Donphan mug which was shaking uncontrollably because his hand was shaking uncontrollably.

"Do you think Anto has PTSD?" Jamie wondered out loud.

"Nah, doesn't fit the main symptoms." Wes commented in. "It just looks more like he's having a panic attack."

White saw the rather worried look on Anto's face he was making at the suggestions of his current mental health. "OK, maybe we should try something else: you're going for the Driftveil City gym, so do you have a game plan?"

Anto visibly seemed to relax at the thought of it. If there was one form of chaos that soothed him, it was Pokémon battling, the amnesiac absolutely loved having Pokémon battles. In the back of his mind, he was always excited to battle, as if before he couldn't quite participate in it as much as he could before.

Anto stopped twitching, and mentally projected to the three about his plans. Considering Clay uses ground type Pokémon, he already told them his plans.

"See? Just relax, I mean what's the worst that can happen—whoops!" Jamie placed a hand on his mouth.

Anto was left frozen in fear at the thought of anything going horribly wrong.

"Jamie!" White scolded.

"I forgot OK!?"

"Well then… this is obviously going to be a long day." Wes said as he looked back at Anto who started to twitch under his left eyelid.

* * *

The group made their way to the gym, since it was just Anto taking the challenge Wes, White, and Jamie were left to take a different route to watch the battle.

Anto sighed deeply before taking a step forward to the platform and pressing down.

His gym challenge had started.

* * *

White had taken a detour to understand some of the business venues Clay had opened up when he lead the underground expedition to expand the subway system all across Unova, she marvled at how Clay took inspirations, even helping hands from the gym leaders from Sinnoh Roark and Byron who had their own experience with Sinnoh's massive underground cave systems.

But while she was looking up with the gym receptionists, Wes and Jamie were alone again as Anto was in the middle of fighting a random gym trainer to get to Clay.

"So… you're a girl?" Wes asked quietly as the two sat nearby each other.

"… Please, please don't tell anyone!" Jamie spoke out with a blush on… her… face and making her face point down to the ground in shame.

"Why are you hiding your gender in the first place?" The Snagger raised his brow after looking away from an idiot gym trainer using magnitude on their flying platform.

"It's… complicated. Really, really complicated."

" …You're not being chased by a mysterious group of people, are you?"

"What? No!"

"Oh good because Anto is already covering that quota."

"Look," Jamie looked at Wes. "Just… I…"

"Are you a cross dresser?"

Jamie buried her face into her hands. "…mrph…"

"What?"

"Can we please just watch Anto's match?"

* * *

[Meanwhile...]

The person sat down alone in the room, looking at the large screen in front of them before pressing a button and receiving a video call.

"Hello? Are you my contractor?"

"Yes, I am. I was told that you are the best of the best."

"Enough with the small talk, I'm sure someone with your 'public image' would want to make this deal quick and easy without the risk of being traced back to you."

The person on the screen simply went along with it. But there was amusement in the eyes of this person despite them being on a screen. "They had told me you were straight to the point. I've already sent the down payment and the data on your most recent target, do you accept these terms?"

"Usually I would accept a contract like this since it follows all parameters."

"That's a strange way of saying no. Is there a particular reason why you are refusing?"

The person sitting down continued on. "Let me finish. I wasn't refusing; it's just that I am in the middle of a contract."

The caller on the other end let that settle in their thoughts before realizing something. "… Playing stake out are you? Is that why you're taking time off to message me right now?"

A smirk appeared on the 'employee's' face. "How astute of you. Yes, I've laid a trap for one of my targets, it's simply only a matter of waiting."

"It speaks volumes if you're taking this time to talk to me in the middle of your hunt. Doesn't sound quite professional of you to take risks like this."

"You made the offer while in the middle of our contract. And judging by the expense you were already willing to pay, I assumed it would be at least proper business to inform you of my predicament rather than let you think we are ignoring you."

Now the contract-er was smiling at his end of the call. "I suppose that makes sense. Well then I wouldn't want to keep you from your job, finish your contract here, and call me again soon."

With that, the two agreed and ended the communication. The person would admit: some polite manners here and there was quite the breath of fresh air from the usual frustrated and demanding contractors.

As soon as it ended, a grunt came in to the 'employee'.

"Sir! Target has been identified! She's been spotted near the Viridan Forest."

Taking an electronic visor that was placed on a nearby desk, the contracted person stood up from their seat.

"Good, start jamming communications, tell Bravo and Charlie Team to run distractions on Viridan and Petwer City on my command."

"Yes Hunter J!"

"Come on men, let see how well this 'hero' of Kanto will hold up," The silver haired woman placed on her visor and armed her gauntlet.

* * *

In the main southern exit and entrance of Viridian Forest, there was someone wearing a straw hat ridding on a fast moving Dodrio.

"Come on, Dodosk, we don't want to be late for Brock's Doctorate Party! Everyone's been invited!"

All three heads of the Dodrio squalled. They were more excited for a different reason.

"Hey, just because Brock is offering his special food to everyone doesn't mean we're there to just eat his meals for him! It's bad enough Gold thinks the same way…" The kind trainer trailed off, remembering how much of a good cook Brock actually was. The way his food reached a perfect of both crispy, delectable, mouth-watering, elegant….

OK now the trainer was drooling thinking of the good doctor/breeder/cook/gym leader's food.

"You know, now that I think about it," The trainer went on. "Brock has pretty much everything a regular girl is looking for: he's kind, caring, multi talented, has more than one steady job, and can handle children well, yet he can't get a date with a single girl. It's kinda ironic if you consider all of that."

Dodrio laughed.

"H-Hey don't laugh!" That didn't stop the giggles coming from her voice.

What did stop them from laughing was the sudden explosion on the opposite end of the forest.

"Sorry, Dodosk, Brock's party is going to have to wait." Then they were off in the opposite direction of wildly panicking Pokémon.

To the duo's surprise, as they nimbly made their way towards the start of the fire, they saw golden statues of horrified Pokémon around the middle of an open field.

The trainer gasped and went towards the frozen Pokémon before getting of Dodosk.

"Oh no! What happened to you all!?" The trainer with a straw hat spoke before kneeling down to a small Caterpie frozen with fear.

Suddenly, Dodrio squawked in pain before a bright flash of light happened behind his trainer.

"Dodosk!?" The blonde trainer was horrified to see Dodosk frozen just like all the other Pokémon there.

"Hmm, I thought for sure you would see that as a trap. How careless of you… Yellow of Viridian Forest."

Yellow turned at the sound of the voice, her eyes widened then narrowed at the female with silver hair walking towards her. "You! You're…" She silently reached for her Poké Ball.

"I wouldn't do that If I were you," With a snap of her fingers, several flying disks appeared and quickly covered all of the gold plated Pokémon, even Yellow's Dodosk. "I was honestly quite surprised. I truly expected you to be wary of a trap. But then again, I had heard that the older Dex users were in a relative time of peace."

"Leave them alone!" The girl cried out, before noticing that more armed soldiers were coming out from the area, carrying their own Pokémon containers.

She was surrounded.

Hunter J stepped forward, pressing something in her gauntlet and making the hover platform of Dodrio fly higher.

"If you make any movement, I will set a frequency off in my gauntlet, turning both your and those other Pokémon into permanent gold statues."

She tried to keep her composure and trailed her hand slowly towards one of the frozen Pokémon beside her.

"What do you want?"

Hunter J smirked before Yellow felt something gooey in her hands. She quickly looked back to see an Ariados, once fully gold, slowly be released from its gold casing and had shot a String Shot at her hands, making her unable to touch a Pokémon.

"It's simple really, girl," Hunter J spoke out as Ariados continued to tie up yellow in silken web. The bounty hunter looked over the young hero and pointed her blaster in front of her face. "I'm after you… and I admit some payback against your Ketchum and Oak friend is a plus."

She fired the gun point blank, freeze the girl along with all the other Pokémon.

"Alright, move out! Our next location Unova! Tell Bravo and Charlie teams to retreat at my command!"

"Yes sir!" They all declared.

As Hunter J made her way back to her ship, she started to look at the forwarded files on her next target:

A boy named Anto.

She noted the pictures of her new target, an above average trainer with no recorded past.

Yet… what piqued her interest the most was not the new target she was contracted to capture, but rather who was with her target.

She stared at the close up picture of the tanned boy with silver hair and a long blue overcoat standing smugly next to her target in a picture taken with him, a Pokémon ranger, and the famous assistant of Professor Oak.

"…"

* * *

"**Interesting! So these platforms are all held up by magnetism! Quite clever considering all the metallic ore and potential the underground has!**" Kryx took notes as she and Anto descended down deeper into Clay's gym.

Kryx was doing quite well for her first few battles, seemingly studying different Pokémon and being very very hard to hit due to her teleport move. Anto was pleasantly surprised to be able to have a Pokémon that could blink across the battlefield in an instant, much like how Summer and Tracey had described what the False Team Plasma grunts had done.

But that was then and this was now, Anto was now descending down into the final level where Clay was waiting for him.

He marveled briefly at the large crystals behind the Gymleader, and more so at the many working machines in the far corners of this massive cave turned battlefield. When the platform he was on completely stopped, he stepped off towards the man who ran Driftveil.

"Well then. You must be this Anto kid I heard about from the others. Tell me, can ya do that cooky psychic thing?"

"**Oh my gosh, a human cowboy!**" Kryx telepathically squealed, earning a surprised look from look only worsened when Kryx took out a large alien needle. "**Allow me to probe yo—**"

Anto recalled his eccentric friend back into her Premier Ball before that sentence could be finished.

"Did… that… that Pokémon just talk?"

The challenger rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "_Well… yeah. It's sorta the same as me—telepathy. So… I guess?_"

Clay blinked several times, but impressively seemed contemplative. "Well, considering them psychic trainers and our own Elite Four, I suppose Telepathy ain't too farfetched. Though, I hear from the others, you ain't quite conventional."

"_Oh, the other gymleaders told you about me?_" Anto asked, thinking back to everyone he fought against so far.

"We keep in touch. You're one of the two trainers we've been told to keep an eye on."

"_Who's the other one?_"

Clay smiled. "Now I can't tell yuh everything, not good business to conduct. … This battle will be a four on four singles match. First to have all useable four Pokémon down, loses, agreed?"

Anto nodded and reached for his belt.

"Go, Seismitoad!" Clay cried out as he brought a powerful fully evolved water and ground type Pokémon.

Anto smiled and threw out Lily in response.

* * *

Everyone was watching as the opening Pokémon were thrown out.

"Quad advantage to Anto right from the start." Jamie noted out.

White added in as well but didn't remove her eyes from the screen. "Yeah, but Clay seems unfazed. Either he has a good poker face, or he has a counter to grass types with that particular Pokémon."

* * *

At the battle, Anto wasted no time, hit hard and hit fast, so he told Lily to launch a fast Magical Leaf against her opponent.

Clay's smirk only grew. "Now! Use Sludge Wave!"

Clay's Seismitoad inhaled before belching a large poison goop from his mouth that instantly melted all of Lily's attack and forced the shiny grass type to avoid being drenched in poison.

"Oh look another grass type Pokémon. Whatever shall I do?" Clay spoke sarcastically before telling his Pokémon to launch another Sludge Wave.

Lily dodged the attack with a Double Team before forcing a bright Flash attack to blind nearly everyone but Anto. As the light died down, Clay and his Pokémon say all Lily images dancing, Quiver Dancing.

"Not bad kid, but not good enough! Use Muddy Water on the whole area! And do that special mix!" Clay added in as his ground and water type Pokémon slammed his palms to the ground, and made a large wave of muddy water surround him and encompass the entire field.

Something felt wrong immediately as he said that, so Anto warned Lily to stop what she was doing and avoid the attack by rising above with her Magical Leaf platform.

Clay seemed kind of amused as he saw the flying pure grass type. "Well, I admit, I ain't ever seen that before. Seismitoad, use Stealth Rocks!"

'Aww crap.'

Anto looked around as large, floating boulders were set up on his side of the field. Now he had to be careful about switching out his Pokémon or else they would get hurt.

But there was one more thing that was bothering him: the muddy water, it looked… weird.

"Now! Shoot up the Muddy Water at her with Stone Edge! Knock her down!" Clay yelled as his Pokémon launched a large spike of rock from the ground, rocketing towards Lily in the air from under the water. Thankfully, Lily was able to jump off her first platform and construct another one beneath her. However, her first platform, which was pierced by the rock, started melting as the muddy water drenched it. Anto and Lily was surprised that muddy water would melt leaves like that, but then the amnesiac spotted the purple hue mixed with the mud.

The challenger quickly looked down below on the Muddy Waters one bubble was building up and looked to have a combination of both brown and purple color to them. In fact, there were traces of purple all around his side of the arena where as Seismetoad's side was filled with the muddy waters only at the edge of his corner, but leaving a huge gap of untouched earth on his side.

'So that was what he meant by special mix,' Anto thought. 'He mixed a poison attack in the waters so it would have a sub element of poison in it, or at least melt off Lily's grass attacks. There's also the fact since the place is covered with water, I can't really predict where the Stone Edge will come out from the ground at least not the same way that move is used. But good thing there's one advantage going for me: not all of Lily's attacks are pure leaves.'

Lily received her order and charged up an Energy Ball before blasting it towards the Seismtoad in the dead center of the only safe zone left.

However, the response of such a Pokémon was simply to use his Stone Edge move defensively and erect it in front of him between the colliding attack and the target. The attack exploded, but as the smoke died down, Seismtoad was looking more dusty than injured.

Then it launched another Sludge Wave, forcing Lily to move away in her platform. Lily was commanded to hide behind one of the floating Stealth Rocks, but then Anto noticed Seismitoad ready to punch the ground—it was another Stone Edge right behind the boulder.

Anto quickly warned Lily to get out of the way again, but as soon as the Stone Edge pierced the ground, drenched in mud and slime, Seismitoad continued to launch Sludge waves, leaving Lily in a very distressing position of having to dodge Poison attacks or take on a poison drenched Stone Edge.

"So kid? How do you like my anti Grass Type Pokémon? I'll tip my hat to ya and admit that your grass type is lasting a lot longer than the others, but there ain't no way you can win like that."

If Lily did get knocked out here, that would leave the rest of his Pokémon to deal with the poison muck and the Stealth Rocks at entrance. That wasn't a good sign, so there had to be a way out of…

Wait… don't Seismitoads have a special ability?

Well it was literally a one in third chance of this happening, but then again…

Anto smiled.

"_Lily, I have a plan!_"

"**Don't just say it; tell me!**" The grass type cried as she motioned her leaves to go above another Sludge Wave.

Lily seemed confused at the order to launch an Energy Ball directly beneath her, but did so anyway.

The attack detonated and started to part the waters, Anto stepped back to higher ground to avoid any chance of this liquid being corrosive, while the explosion sent some of the water towards Seismitoad.

The water and ground type stepped back before Clay ordered him to use a lesser Muddy Water to push the poison back.

"_Yes!_" Anto mentally screamed before pointing to Clay. "_He's not just your grass type counter is he? He's also your water type counter Pokémon as well!_"

Clay looked surprised. "Now how'd you figure that out?"

"_I'm aware of all three abilities a Siesmitoad can have: Poison Touch, Swift Swim, and easily the most efficient of all of them, Water Absorb. I wouldn't put is past you to have that Pokémon be the counter of both water and grass types since everyone likes being efficient, but what really sealed nail on the coffin was the fact you kept the area around your Pokémon dry as possible, Water Absorb can heal you if water attacks are used on you, but your Seismitoad needs to absorb it. But! If you absorb poisonous waters, your ability becomes more of a hindrance than an advantage!_"

Clay smiled. Well then, he was expecting a fight to begin with. Looks like he was right to bring his A-game for this challenger.

"_Lily, blast the waters toward Seismitoad!_" Anto pressed the offensive, with his Grass type obliging quite happily, angling her attacks to push more of the poisonous waters towards the Seismitoad. To push the water back, Seismitoad had to use his own Muddy Water attack to wash back the poison mud. However, the more Seismitoad this, the higher the water levels rose, and the higher it rose, the less free land the water ground type had.

It finally came to the point where Seismitoad was trapped in a tiny little island of dry land.

"_Finish it!"_ Anto pointed as Lily quickly readied another Energy Ball.

"Now! Stone Edge!" It looked like Clay was not out of it yet and his Pokémon punched the ground the moment Lily unleashed her attack, making a powerful spike of rock shot up right beneath Lily after her own attack was launched.

Both attacks made their mark, Seismitoad had a direct hit and fell back intot he water, while a spike instantly melted the leaves Lily was on and forced her to flal towards the poisoned muddy waters.

An idea clicked in Anto's head as he saw Lily falling into the poison.

The evolved shiny looked over to her trainer as the message was sent, and as she dropped into the water, she started shinning.

She was using Aromatherapy in the muddy water to purge all the poison laced in it.

"_Whoo! Yes!_"

Then the water all started going in one general direction.

"_Eh?_"

It looked like all the recently purified water, even with mud, was being absorbed by the Seismitoad, bringing the guy back to full health even from fainting.

"_Boo!_"

"Ha! Kid! Nice try but it looks like—"

Clay was interrupted when another Energy Ball hit Seismitoad squarely in the face, knocking him out cold this time.

Both Clay and Anto looked over to an unamused Lily.

"**That… was for the annoying attack patterns.**" She said as she slumped in fatigue. She could heal many wounds, but it looked like her stamina was drained a lot keeping herself afloat and moving in the air.

Clay smiled in amusement; it had been quite some time since a grass type Pokémon had gotten past his Anti-Grass type Seismitoad.

He recalled his first Pokémon, as did Anto, Lily wasn't in good condition to fight the next battle.

Anto went first, brining out Ohko into the fight next.

"**Yo! I'm here to—!**" The one armed Sawk was rudely interrupted by several flying stones coming into to crush him.

"_Whoops, Stealth Rocks. I don't know why I forget they exist sometimes even though they're very obvious…"_

* * *

"Wow Clay's Seismitoad really looked to have a lot of answers against normal grass types." Jamie commented, watching the screen at the edge with laser focus and interest.

"Yeah, I honestly wouldn't know how to deal with that if I had to battle him." White spoke out.

"Well that is odd." A gym attendant spoke out nearby the trio of friends.

Wes looked to the attendant. "What is?"

"Well that Seismitoad of his… it's usually only used in his Eight Badge battles, for when he has to fight trainers with seven badges or more."

"Wait, but Anto only has four badges!" Jamie called out.

"Weird," The attendant spoke out. "But your friend seems to be doing quite well against Clay's strongest team."

Wes stared at the screen, wondering what the Gymleader here was up to.

* * *

"Now then, since the ground has been cleared of the water as fast as it was filled, I'm bringing out Golurk!"

Anto, Jamie, White, and Wes already knew the typing of a Golurk: ground and ghost. Not the best match up against Ohko who knew mostly fighting type moves.

"_You have got to be kidding me._"

* * *

[Meanwhile]

Summer honestly missed the Ranger HQ in Almia, the fresh air, the green pastures, the peaceful and serenity—

"_Wow this place is completely boring._"

Summer felt an aneurism come up and looked to Flow, the sweet Delta Ivysaur looking quite flustered looking at the floating (and somewhat invisible) object nearby Summer.

"Flow…" Summer began with infinite patience. "Why is _he_ still here?" Her voice may have scared the little delta in her arms/

"**Umm… I… I don't quite know how to undo mental projections?**" Delta whispered softly as she tried to hide in shame within Summer's arms. "**Please don't hate me!**"

"_Oh don't be so cruel to the girl, Nerd_." Wes—or rather, Summer's mental projection of Wes said as he floated around her like a ghost.

Interestingly enough, Flow may have had practice with dream and mental powers that the vast amount of psychic type Pokémon are known for, but the glaring fact was that she wasn't a complete master over her own powers due to the fact she has been genetically re engineered to have different types than her species usually would have. As such, most of her powers come off with different effects that natural Psychics would be capable of.

But what was the problem as of right now you ask? That little help Flow had tried to make to help Summer snap out of her nightmare lock, had evolved into an astral projection—something akin to Summer's own personal phantom that only she and Flow could see. And it was a potentially more sarcastic version of the Wes she knew.

Arceus hated her as much as Anto, didn't he?

"Flow, please, please get rid of him as soon as you can."

Ghost Wes tried to stand beside her casually. "_Your words hurt Nerd. So by any chance can we stay in the same room as that green haired chick a while back? Cause she is fine…_"

Flow seemed to try accessing her powers. "**OK, let me try! Hurrgh!**"

On Summer's opposite side, an Astral Projection of Anto appeared.

Summer just gapped. "Oh Arceus."

"**Sorry! Sorry!**"

Ghost Knoll looked over to the others.

Ghost Wes raised his hand as a hello. "_Sup Mute! She got to you too?_"

"_Oh no, even a false me isn't free of the dark world that surrounds us all. Woe to us all. Woe to us all._"

Summer stared at the drooping mental Anto. "Flow, why does Anto sound like a manically depressed wordsmith?"

"**That… might be how you view him?**" The fairy psychic type offered weakly.

"That is not how I view… hmm… umm…" Suddenly, Summer found it a lot hard to finish that sentence.

"_Hey Flow, trying bringing Headband here, you know might as well make it complete, and I wanna see how Nerd views him._" Ghost Wes nudged carefully.

"Flow, please tell me that they'll go away." Summer spoke with a hint of desperation.

"**Y-Yeah! They definitely will! It's just that maybe they would leave sooner if you met the real Wes and Anto. So your mental images of them will change and weaken them?"**

"_Alas, even now, my own friends conspire to end my pitiful existence. Why does the sunlight torment me so? Making my sorrows visible to the world around us?_"

Ghost Wes looked to the increasingly depressed looking Astral projection of Anto. "_Uhh Mute? Only Summer and Flow can see us_."

"_And the bitter truth reveals itself. Showing me how the people of the world are ignorant to my suffering and are unable in any way, shape, or form offer me freedom from the shackles of despair…_"

Summer looked up to the sky. "Anto, wherever you actually are, I am so so sorry for thinking you're like this._"_

* * *

[Back With The Real Anto]

That didn't go well. Ohko tried his hardest, but he only had one move against Golurk, so the ghost ground type over powered the fighting type easily.

"_It's OK_." Anto blinked in stupor for a second before placing Ohko's Great Ball away. It was weird, he felt the need to… tell someone it was OK. Huh.

Anyway, the challenger brought back Lily into the field, facing down the giant Ghost Pokémon before getting blind sided by a bunch of floating rocks.

The shiny grass type trotted out of the dust coughing somewhat before dusting herself off.

"**Hello?**" The shiny grass type spoke out.

Anto felt a head ache coming as the ground ghost type did what he did when Ohko first appeared: pose dramatically. "**My Fist is the Fist that will Punch The Heav—**"

"**I regret talking to you.**" Lily interrupted the majestically posing Pokémon that somehow had a spotlight on him despite being underground.

"**You will never stop our evolution! We'll keep on going cause—**" It was at this point, both Lily and Anto decided to tune him out.

Lily started off with a Magical Leaf, but just like with Ohko, the Golurk faded away with Phantom Force. It was an annoying tactic that he had honestly used with Sentinel, and he was finding out how annoying it really was, but there was one particular reason why he had chosen Lily for this particular move.

Golurk appeared behind Lily, but obviously Clay had overlooked one of the moves Lily was capable of using right now.

"_Flash!_"

In a bright burst of light, Golurk missed his punch, allowing Lily to gather up another energy Ball right for his torso.

The grass type move exploded with a direct hit. Lily got out of the smoke cloud, but it looked like Golurk was down and out.

"I honestly forgot how troubling Grass types were." Clay spoke out before he brought out his third Pokémon, it was his trusty Excadrill.

And unfortunately, he too posed.

"**Who the heck do you think we are!? My Drill—**" Just as quickly as his friend, he was tuned out.

"Now Excadrill, Metal Claw!" The ground type gym leader cried out as his ace Pokémon put his claws together, and suddenly started spinning like a bullet towards Lily. In defense, the grass type raised a magical leaf barrier between them. However, the barrier didn't do much to slow down the Steel Ground type a little, or at all as he burst through it as if nothing was there and bashed right into Lily, making her fly into the opposite end of the gym wall and crash.

Anto sighed as he saw Lily out cold for this battle and returned her into her Poké Ball.

Takezo hit the field, but then quickly jumped and avoided being smashed in by floating rocks.

"**Unbelievable, I still must deal with boulders attempting to crush me!?" **The little swordsman called out after looking around the flying boulders. Apparently, he was now becoming an expert in boulder dodging.

Then Takezo and saw his opponent taking out a pair of familiar, spiky glasses.

"**Now listen up! I'm the leader of the Kick Ass** **Driftveil Digging team! A paragon of…**" Anto tuned him out again and looked to Clay.

"_Are you aware of your Pokémon's quirks?_"

Clay folded his arms and thought about it for a second. "Now that you mention it, some of my Pokémon have been watching more TV lately… don't really see much harm in letting them do so, I mean they can't understand our language."

"_Wait a sec, even my Pokémon have trouble understanding things from the TV with a translator, how did these guys watch and understand it?_"

"**Manliness is Universal! It needs no words to express the sheer awesomeness!**" Anto heard Excadrill scream.

Thankfully, Clay had ordered Excadrill to attack with Metal Claw again, making the Pokémon spin in a spiral before launching himself at Takezo. The swordsman side stepped the attack, allowing Excadrill to keep going and land on the other side with a slide. It looked like Excadrill seemed to realize that type of attack wouldn't work, so he sharpened his claws with a shinning glow. Takezo unsheathed his blade, and a dark energy enveloped over it.

The two stared down each other before going at each other. Excadrill struck first, trying to launch a quick and wide horizontal swipe, only for Takezo to easily dodge it by crouching under and hitting the hilt of his blade right into Excadrill's lower chin and staggering back. Takezo took advantage of that, unleashing a furry of Dark imbued slashes on the Steel type as a combo starting off with his own horizontal slash quickly following up with reversal in the opposite side he swung, following it up with more slashes and eventually jumping over Excadrill, putting both hands on his wooden blade, and then swinging his empowered blade right into the back of the Excadrill in order to make him fly towards his trainer.

Takezo readied his blade as he stared at Excadrill's body on the floor. Just before Clay could reach for his Poké Ball, Excadrill stood back up, the shine on his glasses and the smile on his face did not look any weaker—but rather it looked much more vivid.

"**Listen up! You ain't going to beat me like that! I'm Excadrill of the Badass Driftveil Dig Team! Just who do you think I am!?**" Excadrill cried out in a rather epic manner before throwing himself back at Takezo. Anto could have sworn he even saw flashy lights come from somenwhere.

The master swordsman used Detect to avoid the first blow before following up another furry of slashes before ending it with one large push to force away the Excadrill.

However, this time Excadrill held on as the attack puish him away, his body only slid, but he still remained standing.

He did one more call about him being the best, before launching himself again at Takezo, only this time his claw reach seemed mysteriously longer. Takezo jumped out of the way and saw the ground tear beneath him where he last was.

Anto realized it. "_Crap Takezo! I underestimated him! He was using some kind of Sword Dance Variant whenever he shouted! That's why he was glowing whenever he did that!_"

"**Ahh..**" Takezo nodded before he also used his own Sword Dance move.

Excadrill smiled and went for it again, but Takezo once more showed a little more mastery over swordplay over Excadrill, yet something was off this time. Excadrill was now shrugging off Takezo's attacks.

"**How are you doing that?**" Takezo asked with curiosity.

"**Dumb ass! It's not about how much power, or skill you got, it's about the power drill and what I'm meant to do!**"

"**Excuse me?**"

Excadrill proudly fisted his chest, making a loud clanging noise. "**My drill! My universe to believe in the me that believes in myself! I never run from a fight nor do I back down!**"

Anto looked lost, but Takezo looked strangely silent for some reason.

"**I'm the bad ass member of Driftviel's Digging team! Who the hell do you think we are!?**" Excadrill cried out before launching straight for Takezo.

Anto noticed that Takezo seemed distracted. "_Hey, Takezo!"_

"**Hmm?**" Takezo snapped back only to get hit y a clean Metal Claw attack that launched him into the wall from all the way back and knocked him out cold.

Anto wondered what that was about, before sending out his last Pokémon, Sentinel.

"Down to your last Pokémon, but I still got two left!" Clay spoke out. But he had never seen his opponent's Pokémon before.

"_Sentinel Ready?_"

"**Let's do this!**" Sen complied and activated his Dragon Claw move, but then he was smashed by some left over flying rocks that had a delayed reaction to the new combatant. As the dust settled, Sentinel coughed. "**Wait? ****… But I thought I didn't have lungs? How did I cough?**"

Excadrill looked pleased at his new opponent and unleashed a lot of power into this next Metal Claw, it looked as if the damages Takezo piled up were starting to affect him, but this Pokémon was going out with a bang.

The two Pokémon rushed for each other—

"**AAHHH!?**" Sentinel suddenly dropped his attack and writhed in pain. Excadrill stopped his attack the second before it connected on his opponent.

"_Sentinel!_" Anto cried out as he ran to his Pokémon with worry. The young boy held his Pokémon in his arms, despite him trashing in pain. What was happening to him?!

Clay looked up to a camera. "Someone call Nurse Joy, now!"

Back in the satnds, everyone quickly got to work, while Anto's friends stared in shock.

"What's going on!?" White cried out in shock before they all got off towards Anto.

* * *

[Torren Region]

"… Hmm…"

"Why are we going over these files again?"

"I simply wanted to reassess the conditions of the earlier Delta Pokémon Prototypes we had before sending them to Unova."

"I thought we sent them over because they were obsolete. They had an error in their DNA Sequence that will cause them to expire sooner than most Pokémon."

"Well that's partially true. While in our lab, Delta Ivysaur and Delta Wartortle had regular checkups, so most of their faulty coding was… fixed. They now would live like any normal Pokémon, if not just a little less, but Delta Charmeloeon refused our help no matter what we did. By the end of the year he will die. And that is only if he doesn't keep putting out so much power in his moves and abilities."

"Aren't ghost Pokémon already dead though?"

"No-no, I mean he will disintegrate. His DNA strands will start deteriorating from the inside, leaving nothing but dust when he fails."

"Ouch."

"Why should we worry? He's not our problem, he's someone else's."

* * *

[Driftveil Pokémon Center.]

"I'm sorry, I do think we have the equipment to help your Pokémon…" Nurse joy spoke out to the mute.

"Why… why is that?" White asked for the horrified Anto.

"Our scans didn't detect anything… at least not on the surface, but deeper scans show… there's no easy way to say this, but this Pokémon isn't a real Pokémon."

Anto clenched his fist. "_He's real to me. That's more than enough._" He glared.

"S-Sorry. What I meant to say is that his entire body… it almost looks artificially created, and well… long story short, the things that should have kept together are now failing and breaking apart."

Anto looked over to Sentinel relaxing on a bed, put under a special ghost type sedative.

"Not to mention, we don't know what kind of Pokémon this is, and are basing off the outlines of bth Dragon and ghost type Pokémon, there's nothing we can do to stop it. … I'm sorry."

Everyone became silent.

"I will at least say this: your Pokémon will survive longer if you stop letting him use Pokémon moves. He's stable right now, so he should be fine as soon as he wakes up, but it'll be up to you to… I… I'm sorry… I 'm… needed elsewhere." She looked over her shoulder, seeing other Pokémon in need of her help.

"Sentinel… is going to die?" Jamie asked.

Anto started to shiver as he thought back. "_Back in Nimbasa… Sentinel just suddenly stopped being able to move. I didn't know he was dying… I thought… I thought… oh Arceus, I pushed him to his death didn't I? With all of our training and battles?_" He was starting to cry—did he push his friend to an earlier grave?

White placed a caring hand on the boy's shoulder. "Hey-hey! Don't think that, no one knew about that. It's no one's fault…" She and Jamie tried to calm the boy down.

Wes stayed at the corner of the door, he felt a little bad that he wasn't very good at comforting anyone. Then he saw Clay come in through the hallway.

"How bad is it?" Clay asked.

"Would you believe worse than it looked?" Wes passively asked before explaining the gist of the Pokémon's condition.

Clay sighed. "That Pokémon did look unnatural to me. … But," Wes looked at him. "The kid looked horrified seeing his buddy in pain. And you can't fake genuine concern."

At this moment Clay took something and placed tossed it to Wes for him to catch. The boy from Orre looked at it and saw that it was the Driftveil Gym badge, The Quake Badge.

"When the time is right, give that to the boy." Clay said.

"Why? Didn't he lose?" Wes asked quickly.

"Well… if we're being honest, I may have used my strongest team against him…" Clay scratched the back of his head.

"Now why would you go and do that?"

"… Let's just say, I underestimated the last trainer. Oh, and I was going to give him the badge if he beat at least one of my Pokémon. But something tells me, even with a 2v1, and with my last Pokémon being a Krookodile, he still would have gave me a run for my money…" Clay fixed his hat and left.

"Hey, where are you going?" The Snagger looked quite curious at the sudden leave.

"I have other business to attend to son, urgent business. Anto there was supposed to be my last gym battle for a while. Now if you'll excuse me." Clay spoke out before he left.

Wes looked on, wondering how Anto would actually get through this.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Edit: Made a mistake and forgot to include the Stealth Rocks in the fight, lost track of them honestly. I also added some new dialogue that came in with that.**

**Well thank you for reading! This battle was inspired by **Saphroneth's Ash's Squirtle. **I mean seriously, He's a drill, how could I not make the reference?**

**Next up, if you will recall around a few chapters back, you'll notice that Sentinel suddenly stopped moving. This was the reason why. He's dying.**

…

**Originally, I thought I would include all the Delta Prototypes, but I thought against that since it would not make much sense if they were being tested on a lot by the Torren Region scientists.**

**Also, we find out that Hunter J is in the running for the chase after Anto. And she just Kidnapped Yellow from the manga?! Why!? Who is after her?**

**Oh wait I'm the author, I already know.**

**Silly me.**

**Even though Anto lost his match, technically, he still gets the badge because as stated, I made Clay use his higher level team against him.**

**Putting him at five out of eight badges! Whoo! ERmm… too soon?**

**Looks like I'm a liar again, I thought I woulnd't stay here for long, but bang! Now there might be one more chapter left in Driftviel before we leave for the sixth badge.**

**Oh and for those paying close attention. If you have paid attention to the Black and White Manga, you'll probably guess what's actually going to happen soon by the time Anto arrives to the 'sixth' gym if Clay is already leaving. (He was technically supposed to leave sooner but…)**

**Plus maybe in the later chapters, we'll start to see how things are fairing with Tracey and Summer.**

**See you all soon! I can't wait for you guys to see the up and coming chapters!**

[?]

"Hunter J has done her job, and now she's heading towards Unova as planned."

"Good we're all meeting there ASAP."

"I'm already here, so what am I supposed to do?"

"… Why don't you look after our… initiate?"

"Her? Her job is to keep—"

"I am aware, but lately she hasn't been reporting."

"Alright fine, I'll go check up on them. I'm curious as to who the new Host is anyway."

* * *

[Deleted Scene]

Anto made his way towards the Metal Platform.

For some reason, it seemed to spark to life as he pressed the down button. He didn't like how that looked.

He also didn't like how it went down afterward.

… It also didn't look to stop where it was supposed to.

… And it was accelerating…

OK he was falling to his death again, wasn't he?


	31. Ep 31: A Simple Mind

Episode 31: A Simple Mind

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**You gotta love Nintendo. A Pokken Tournament game and the seventh Generation is coming up by the end of the year? It looks like a good year for Pokémon which means there is more craziness going to be added onto that which is Anto's Bizarre Adventure!**

* * *

[Ferrum Region]

The man studied the new device in his hand that he would place around his ear. "How interesting. In this region, trainers can easily access Mega evolution without a Mega Stone or Key Stone. However, it's shown to be temporary unlike the original method which can last the entire battle or when the Pokémon is knocked out cold. There is also the fact that even non Mega Evolution Pokémon can have pseudo power up versions as well. … Hmm. I wonder… what would happen with a 'Synergy Burst', the term they coin that allows the Pokémon of the Ferrum Region to gain an amazing amount of power, for an already Mega Evolved Pokémon?"

"**Extrapolating several theories… Hypothesis: Pokémon in question would receive a boost of power unheard of with potential to put Mega Legendaries to shame.**"

"A good hypothesis, Metagross."

At this moment, a shiny Magnezone reached toward the cloaked trainer/

"**ZZt!** **Target spotted. Will reach spot of intervention in 46.37 seconds.**"

"Excellent. Now if what everyone else is sensing is true then this will be a much harder fought battle."

He jumped off his Shiny Metagross from the sky and dived into the forest path in front of him. He landed with a boom, making the wind fly and stopping right in front of another cloaked person but this time a pale female with blue eyes and silver hair.

The woman stepped back. "Who are you?"

"Someone who is here for a certain something in your possession. It would be of everyone's best interest if you hand it over right this instant." The other silver haired woman stepped back, realizing that there was only one thing in her possession worth stealing. However, she was wondering how on earth could this other man know about it?

The female stepped back before trying to run in the opposite second. However, the road behind her was attacked by two powerful slashes showing a Shiny Scizor and a Shiny Bisharp blocked her path.

"I am not giving you the stone!" The cloaked figure screamed.

"By force it is then. Gentlemen?" The male cloaked figure motioned two his two steel types.

The two Pokémon raised their blade like arms before they noticed a spike and power and were both hit by a sudden Hyper Beam.

"**Massive Energy Spike detected.**" The man's Metagross and Magnezone spoke out at the same time as they turned their optics towards the Pokémon unleashing such a devastating move.

It was a familiar bipedal Pokémon whose power was said to have been copied and altered from the Pokémon Mew. In an instant, it appeared beside the woman, trying to protect her.

"Mewtwo. I'm not surprised." The male cloaked figure stepped forward. "But which Mewtwo are you? The one created by Blaire? Or the one by Dr. Fuji?"

The Psychic type stayed silent, but started gathering considerable energy.

"Hmm strange. No emotional reaction. I didn't know there was third Mewtwo…" The man took out his necklace, revealing around half a dozen megastones tied together. Three of them just lit up.

Mewtwo suddenly launched a Thunderbolt, however, Mega Scizor spun glide to the side before rushing with a flurry of Bullet Punches. Mewtwo grabbed the woman and jumped back, only to notice Bisharp already preparing a Night Slash attack to where he was about to go. The Legendary Pokémon quickly teleported away from the attack then he used his powers to place the mysterious woman down.

"Thank you, Mewtwo." She spoke to him

The psychic type legend nodded before turning towards the group of steel type Pokémon: Mega Scyther, Bisharp, Mega Metagross, and Magnezone. Curiously enough, most of those Pokémon were Shiny or in a different color scheme than most of their kind.

The male strange pointed a hand towards them before putting the Battle AR scouter on his ear. As the device near his head started to feed information to him, he placed a small silver device on it and suddenly its screen turned black with green numbers.

"What's he doing with that Battle AR?"

"Execute Lockdown Protocol."

Suddenly, all four of his Pokémon readied themselves against the Legendary Pokémon in front of them.

Despite being protected by one of the most powerful Pokémon in the world, the female figure felt something off. The 'package' she was carrying was giving off a strange energy.

Bisharp and Mega Scizor attacked Mewtwo. The Legendary did well to ward off the two steel types. However, the two attackers were no slouches themselves. Mewtwo changed tactics, making his fists be enflamed before launching a wide spread fire attack at the two. The flames were suddenly stopped and parted as Mega Metagross flew in with a full body Zen Headbutt, blasting through the flames and body checking Mewtwo into the ground before rising into the sky.

"Mewtwo!" The female cried out. Mewtwo was strong, but a one on four against strong opponents was becoming too much.

In a sudden burst of energy, Mewtwo glowed and transformed into Mega Mewtwo X. The Pokémon vanished with renewed speed and started attacking against his aggressors. He Fire Punched the Scizor before Drain Punching the Bisharp. Mewtwo X glanced to the corner of his eye and avoided a Meteor Mash from Mega Metagross from the sky. Mega Mewtwo rushed for Metagross, only to be blocked by a Protect move. However that did not stop the mega legendary from using its massive power and strength to carrier the Metagross while in his Protect barrier and throw him hard into the ground. The throw made the giant steel Pokémon drop the field letting the Mega kick it across the field with an impressive display of show. At this point, the Mega Scizor and Bisharp launched themselves back at the Pokémon.

As his two other steel types were fighting, the male cloaked figure commented out loud. "Ahh so that must be the Synergy Burst I heard Ferrum prides itself in being able to tap into. I admit, it's very impressive."

"You aren't from Ferrum?" The woman narrowed her eyes towards the attacker. That did make sense since unlike most of the world; the Ferrum Region didn't have that many people capable of normal Mega Evolution where they needed a Mega and Key Stone. There wasn't much of a need for them because of Synergy Energy and the fact there were no Mega or Key stones that could be found here.

"Perceptive, but even with the upgrade it's still checkmate. Magnezone, Zap Cannon." He snapped his fingers. The woman noticed that the Magnezone was way up high and launched a massive Zap Cannon towards Mega Mewtwo X. The Mega Dual type jumped away, but then noticed it was still following him. "Magnezone already used Lock On before Zap Cannon. This attack is going to hit."

In counter to that, Mega Mewtwo readied a large amount of psychic energy into his hand as he flew towards the sky.

The girl's eyes widened in panic. "Mewtwo, above you!"

The mega looked up, only to be punched by a heavy Meteor Mash from the Shiny Mega Metagross right into the Zap Cannon attack.

"Mewtwo!" She called out in shock, but then she stopped as once more, Mega Scyther and Bisharp raised their blades to her.

"Remember, you had your chance… Anne." The cloaked figure snapped his fingers.

**SLASH!**

[Elsewhere…]

"**Alright! As you can see here!**" Kryx was using one of her many alien Probes as a pointer to indicate what was on her 4D hologram of Sentinel. (She assured the peanut gallery that the extra dimension was taste—no one wanted to comment on the odd flavor their tongue was feeling as the hologram went on) She pointed towards the head of Sentinel's diagram where it zoomed into to show what looked to be DNA strands… or broken up ones.

"**Sentinel's DNA structure is failing horrible due to incompetent and lousy ribo-nuclear splicing. Of which to the point that Sentinel's body will expire in about… less than a year.**"

White looked nervously around the group. It was sort of surreal being educated by an alien Pokémon (mad) scientist that was talking to them like school children. "So uhh… Kryx? Is there umm, any way to stop that?"

"**Let me get into to that!**" She said a little too excitedly before zooming out to Sentinel's brain… which looked kinda small for some reason. "**Wait, no gimme a sec. This thing is glitching out on me whenever I add a new patch to it.**" Like a true scientist, Kryx simply whacked the machine showing the hologram several times while it still showed Sentinel's brain.

"**So, is anyone going to point out—I mean ask why Sentinel's brain is that s—size? Yeah, size.**" Lily hesitantly asked. I mean, it was true someone's life (Questionable) was at stake, but then again it was looking more like said life (Questionable) was in the hands of a not so competent person, so it was kind of hard to take it seriously. Yes that was a very political way of saying it.

The one armed fighting type, Ohko, rubbed his chin as thoughtfully as he could possibly muster. "**That brain looks kinda big to me…**"

"**Kryx, you might want to hurry it up.**" Lily decided to drop this topic now.

This time, the levitating psychic type used both of her limbs to project herself 'holding' her probe before using the pointy stick like object to whack the machine to show another image of Sentinel's DNA.

"**I do have my own DNA Preservers, which I can recalibrate to slow down the deterioration process by forty five percent of its usual speed thus allowing an increase of allotted time before decomposition and disintegration!**"

"**Oh that makes sense.**" Everyone looked strangely at Ohko after he had said that.

"**You… know what she said?**" Espeon asked cautiously.

Ohko actually pointed over to Sentinel nearby the floating object. "**Yeah. Just stab more of those pointing things in him.**"

Everyone turned and looked back to see Sentinel was covered with _many_ Alien probes sticking out of his body. They were all flashing and beeping, almost giving the illusion that Sentinel was lit up like a Christmas tree.

"**I am so glad I finally get to probe something!**" The excited psychic type floated over to Sentinel before stabbing his back with the probe she was just so previously carrying.

The Delta Pokémon just sat down as he looked at all the pieces of alien metal protruding out from him. "**You know, I recall the lab coats trying to puncture me before with these needles, but this feels really nice!**"

"**That because they're laced with dopamine sedatives!**" She excitedly turned to the others and teleported two more probes nearby her. "**Now who else want to feel their mind go numb as I stab you in places you didn't know you could be stabbed?**"

"_**No.**_" They all spoke out.

[Later on...]

Anto was sitting under a plot of land that stretched under the Driftveil Bridge he was looking at the many rocks that were being washed by water before he found a spot where he could sit down.

…

Sentinel was going to die.

He didn't want him to die. He didn't want to lose another— … 'another'? Another what? Something ached when he thought about death. He didn't know why, did someone he care for die before? Did he not get over it?

Anto angrily grabbed a flat stone, "_THIS IS FRUSTRATING DANG IT!_" he mentally screamed, scaring away some flying Swanna and Ducklets before throwing a stone as hard as he could.

As soon as he got out of that system, he sat back down, feeling more depressed than ever.

"… That was the strangest scream I had ever heard."

The amnesiac blinked before turning his head—and back up to his feet quickly. Somehow, without his notice, a giant hobo had snuck up to him without him noticing. This guy was huge, and Anto meant that this guy would put basketball players to shame. At this moment, a strange colored Floette with a red and black flower cooed and floated around the tall hobo.

"**He's kinda weird, just like you AZ!**"

The hobo scoffed kindly and looked over to the much tinier Pokémon beside him. "How am I weird? I'm not the one speaking without sound."

"**You do remember your… circumstance, right?"**

While he was watching the back and forth Anto couldn't help but feel curious about the man in front of him there was just something about the man that made his brain feel weird. "_I'm sorry to interrupt, but who are you two?_"

"Hey, youngster, where are your manners? You're supposed to introduce yourself before your elders." The tall man scolded and narrowed his eyes.

"_Well I'm not allowed to talk to strangers._" Anto folded his arms and answered back. He wasn't in the mood for whatever weirdness was coming for him today. He wasn't having any of it this time.

The large man was about to say something until he caught his breath and noticed something. "Alright fine, let's try something different. … I heard your psychic scream. It's one of the strongest telepathy I've seen in a long time that didn't come from a Pokémon."

The mute looked away, keeping his arms folded. "_So?_"

"Mind telling an old man what exactly is 'frustrating'?" The man noted how the younger boy winced at the word. If the kid was going to be stubborn, it looked like he would have to play that card. "Kids these days throw a tantrum over the smallest things—"

"_YOU TAKE THAT BACK!_" Anto snapped back at the taller man with angry eyes and stepped towards him. "_You have no idea what I've been through!_"

"**AZ?**" The tiny fairy type looked towards her partner with confusion.

"You teenagers are all the same, thinking that you're on top of the world."

"_How would you like it if you lost someone you care about then be forced to forget about them!_" For a brief second, the wind itself—no… for the briefest moments, it almost looked as if Anto was using telekinesis.

That shut AZ up when he looked back. In all of his travels that was one of the most powerful telekinetic screams he ever heard. Anto eyes were watery from screaming that. "_I-It's not fair. Why does everything bad happen to me?_"

The large hobo sighed. "… Perhaps I was a little too cruel in trying to find out what you were feeling. I'm sorry."

"…" Anto looked down, feeling bad for screaming in the first place. He stood up ready to leave until the man spoke up again.

"**AZ! Apologize!**" The strange colored Floette demanded.

"She's right. What I did was uncalled for, but I wanted to know what exactly you were going through. Losing a love one is a horrible feeling… but what did you mean by forgetting them?"

Anto looked back at the man. As he calmed down a bit, it did seem weird for him to suddenly become so rude when he looked a little happier before he spoke. Maybe he was trying to tell him in his own way to move on with his life and thought he was being all angsty over something small. Either way, this AZ person—weird name but annoyingly familiar to Anto as well—seemed sincere this time.

"_I have amnesia. I… someone I know is dying and I can't help but feel like before I woke up, I knew someone who died and… I don't think I got over it._"

"That… sucks." Floette stared at how blunt her friend was being after he said that.

"_Yeah whatever, my life does suck and I'm used to it by now._" Anto sullenly complained and sat back down. He picked up a stone and threw it into the water even though he tried to make it skip.

AZ sighed and sat a little way beside Anto. "Life does not 'suck' as you kids these days put it."

Anto raised his brow and looked towards the strange man. "_I know you're freakishly tall and all, but you don't look that old._"

A small smirk appeared on the tall stranger's eyes this made Anto think he might be older than he looks. "I sure don't look that old do I? How about I tell you a story? About a foolish man who tried to get his friend back from death."

Anto placed a hand on his head as his mind started cranking, strange flashes of information was flowing into his head about a brown picture of a man, a Floette, and two figures like the Letter X and Y. "_I… I think know this story. It's a Kalos Folklore isn't it? About a king who created a powerful machine that brought life to his friend but death to his enemies?_"

"Oh you know?"

"_Sometimes my memory resurfaces on weird cues. I think I know that story. … The man… he was a king wasn't he? And… and… his friend left him after he killed thousands then he was cursed to immortality._"

The tall hobo's smile became somber and the Floette beside him looked fairly sad herself.

"That man's mistake is a lesson everyone should learn. Life and death have a precious balance. It's unfair, but it is necessary." The hobo named AZ finished.

"_That sounds really sad though. He must have loved his Pokémon and he just let his hatred blind him._"

AZ looked at the boy. "This is the first time I heard someone try to explain the actions of the king."

"_What he did was wrong, yes, but not everyone can be strong in the face of adversity sadly. I just hope I don't make that same mistake._"

The hobo looked at the boy before reaching out and ruffling his head. "I wouldn't worry about that. But the point of the story was that the king never truly realized what he had until it was gone. If you're friend is dying, then spend as much time with them as possible and say everything you need to tell them." The boy seemed less sure of himself, and for a second, AZ saw his younger brother in him—not his descendant—but his younger brother. For someone so young and immature, he always seemed smarter than he could ever be.

After his head was ruffled, Anto looked over to the man in shock. "_Did you even wash your hands?_" Anto felt like going back to the center to shower for hours.

Floette started giggling.

"I'll have you know that my hands are clean as a whistle." Anto did not believe him and started worrying about his head if it was infected.

Suddenly, out of the waters, three giant metal claws shot out and grabbed all three of them.

"Floette!" The giant hobo cried out before he was suddenly raised high above the water.

"**AZ!**" Floette cried out.

Anto struggled to break loose but the claws were keeping him contained… wait these weren't claws, they looked more like giant metal tentacles. What was that light coming from the river?

To the three's surprise, a giant and familiar Pokémon-like robot emerged from the water.

"_A-A mecha Tentacruel? … AWW COME ON!_" Anto mentally yelled.

A hatch on the center of the Tentacruel and an uncanny and very familiar tune played out while the sound of a metal platform was slowly ascending.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"Here's our mission, so you better listen!"

Why did that sound so eerily familiar?

"To Infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all people in every nation!"

Two voices called out, Anto noticed a green haired man and blonde woman coming out slowly by the rising platform.

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

As the platform slowly came up, more of the strange duo came up. The two of them were wearing black uniforms with white boots and gloves with a red R logo on their chest. He recognized that symbol—voices crammed into Anto's mind. A similar but different motto with different and similar people.

"Cassidy!"

"And Butch!"

"Team Rocket circling Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!"

"(Raticate!) **That's right!**"

The platform finally stopped as the two people started posing dramatically while these two were accompanied by a simple Raticate.

Anto has this very strange sense of déjà vu and nostalgia, but he didn't know why. "_Team Rocket? Katie and Butch?_" Also there was something in the back of his mind that made him forget what the name of the girl was. He knew she said it, but for some reason he didn't hear it properly.

"It's Bu—huh wait what?" The green haired man started before he realized the kid just said his name right.

The blonde however…

"Hey you brat! It Cassi—"

"_Look I don't care. Just let us go!_" Anto screamed out. It took a few seconds before Butch and the blonde woman realized that the boy was using telepathy.

"Well aren't you an interesting kid after all." The Woman whose name escaped Anto smiled mischievously. "I'm starting to see why the higher ups are interested in you."

"_Wait, what?_" Team Rocket was after him? Why? He thought they were in Johto and Kanto.

"Hey you! Butch and Katherine!" AZ screamed "Let us go this instant!"

"It's Cassidy!" The blonde girl corrected.

"Am I in some weird parallel universe?" Butch asked around in utter shock since that was the second time someone got his name right.

"Listen you hobo this is between us and the kid. Though I have to admit, you are one freakishly tall person." Cassidy mused. "And that Floette of yours… it looks very rare!" She turned towards the struggling tiny Pokémon.

"Don't you hurt her!" AZ screamed as he struggled under his restraint.

"Foolish old man, we don't listen to anyone! We're Team Rocket!" Butch proudly exclaimed before throwing out a Poké Ball. As it opened up, a Hypno appeared with a creepy leer towards the Floette. His eyes glowed red.

"Floette! What are you monsters doing!?" AZ screamed as he tried to force open the restraints.

"Just recruiting a Pokémon to the glory of Team Rocket!" Cassidy and Butch laughed out loud.

However, Anto noticed something odd with the Hypno…

"**Do you accept Arceus as your lord and Savior? Would you like to talk about his splendor and grace?**" The Hypno spoke out as he swung the pendulum back and forth towards Floette.

"**Yes… Arceus is the savior…**" Floette droned on like a zombie before the tentacle let go of her and she floated hypnotically towards Team Rocket.

"_Hey! Out of curiosity, is your Hypno a Jehovah Witness?_"

Cassidy and Butch snapped out of their smiles as the odd thought came to them. "You know that does explain why he tried to give us those really big religious books." Butch commented.

Cassidy shook her head. "Put these two in their cage, and let's get ready to leave."

AZ and Anto started panicking as the Team Rocket duo started making their way down back into the sub as the tentacles were bringing the two into a new open hatch which no doubt dropped them into some dark prison.

For some reason though, everything felt colder as he went closer to… why did the tentacle stop?

"Huh what!?" Cassidy and Butch screamed as they looked back to see the water surface around them be frozen despite being it being the middle of the day. Suddenly, the duo were attacked by Shadow Balls that came from the sky.

Anto recognized this attack. He trained with that Pokémon in how to increase its power.

"**Yo Anti! How come you keep getting yourself into these fun situations?**" Sentinel appeared in thin air nearby the young boy.

"_S-Sentinel!? What are you doing!?_" Anto cried out in shock. Why was he using his Pokémon moves!?

The tall hobo's eyes widened as he saw the strange looking Charmeleon. "Is that a Delta Pokémon?"

Sentinel unleashed his Dual move of Dragon and Shadow Claw, Monster Shred, making his dragon claws glow and extend with dark energy. "**Duh, saving you!**" In two fierce slashes the tentacles holding both AZ and Anto fell down and the two landed on the head of the submarine.

AZ landed on his feet, Anto landed face first. Still, he didn't care about that as he quickly got back up and looked towards Sentinel.

"_Sen! Stop using your moves! You'll die quicker the more you use them!_"

Sentinel, despite lacking facial features, tilted his head and looked very confused. "**You make that sound like a bad thing.**"

"_It is a bad thing! Sentinel, I don't want you to die!_" Anto spoke out as he went closer and kneeled to the ghost and dragon type.

To the amnesiac's surprise, Sentinel just gave a huge goofy grin. "**Oh really? Then don't worry about it.**"

The mute's surprise did not stop. "_Of course I'm worried! Why aren't you!?_"

"**Because I really really like being with you. So what if I die? You guys are the best people I've ever been with, and I want to spend as much time I have with you as possible!**" Sentinel smiled simply as if there was no other answer in the world to him.

Anto stared in shock before he turned and saw AZ smiling towards him. "Your Pokémon is very wise."

The mute looked to the innocent Sentinel before petting his head fondly. "_They're more than that, they're all amazing._"

"**I know I am.**" Sentinel beamed before Anto laughed. AZ was right, instead of just sulking about a horrible thing, it's best to make the greatest out of whatever time Sentinel has left. It will probably hurt when he leaves, but it would hurt a lot more if he regretted not spending more time with them.

"You're all dead that's for sure!" AZ, Anto, and Sentinel looked back towards the smoke were a disheveled Butch and Cassidy looked especially peeved at the ghost dragon.

As the smoke died down, Anto noticed a small army of Pokémon under (Caitlyn) and Butch. There was a Charizard, a Granbull, a Sableye, a Houndoom on (Sissy's) side while on Butch's there was a Primeape, Hitmontop, Mightyena, Aggron, and Shuckle. Added with a hypnotized Floette, Hypno, and Raticate, it was 12 versus 1.

"This doesn't look good…" AZ nervously said, but to his surprise, Anto stepped forward with a confident smile as Sentinel followed beside him.

"If you're not going in the easy way, then we'll just have to take you out the hard way!" (Cassie) cried out as her army of powerful Pokémon readied themselves towards the boy.

"_You really think that is going to scare me, Katie and Butch?_"

"It's Cassidy! I just said my name! Were you not listening!?" Cassidy screamed and stomped her foot down hard on the metal head.

"Holy crap, so this is what it's like to see that from the outside!" Butch noted in utter shock.

"Grr! That's not the point!" Cassidy growled madly before pointing to the defiant boy. "It's 12 versus one! I don't care how weird that Pokémon looks, just take it down and his trainer!"

"_Like I said, I'm not afraid. Because I've face far worse opponents… only because of the friends I have to fight alongside me._"

Sentinel readied his Dragon Claws. "**Plus we made a promise to travel with you, Anti! We all don't have anything better to do really!**"

AZ had lived a very long time. In his prison of immortality, he eventually learned or had gained the ability to understand Pokémon. While it has been such a long time that he has truly forgotten if he either learned or gained this ability, the fact remains that he can understand all Pokémon he comes into contact with. And what the Delta Pokémon had just said piqued his curiosity: he never used a singular phrase such as "I" or "me" in that sentence.

"Primeape, Outrage!" Butch cried out as the fighting type exploded with fierce dragonic fury towards Sentinel.

Anto raised his hand to the sky. "_Takezo, Detect Counter!_"

Something small quickly landed in between Sentinel and the Primeape closing in. It was Takezo whose eyes were already glowing a vibrant light blue towards the exploding fighting type. The Primeape was about to body the smaller normal type until in a quick motion, Takezo drew his blade, slid towards the fighting type, and slashed the side of the knee that was closest to him. The evolved Pokémon stumbled forward which made Takezo catch his stomach as he fell forward and with the continuing momentum, the normal type tossed the taller fighting type over his shoulder and into the ice.

"**We're always not too far behind you, Anto.**" Takezo said as he re sheathed his blade.

"Is that a Patrat? One of the most common normal types in Unova? How the heck did such a simple little creature beat Primeape!?" Butch called out in shock.

The immortal king blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of the sword wielding Pokémon. "Where did that Pokémon come from?" He then recalled that he came from the sky, and he quickly looked up. His eyes widened as he saw something flying in the sky.

There was giant pile of flying leaves that were levitating in the air with a Liligant and a Sawk standing on top of the pile. Next to them was a Elgyem holding some kind of gold and pointy stick. The three Pokémon descended nearby the young trainer, looking all eager towards the boy.

"_You guys came after me?_"

"**We thought it would be a good idea to follow you around, since ya know… bad things follow you around as well.**" AZ noticed the Liligant speak to Anto.

Anto laughed. Something told him that probably death wouldn't keep these crazy Pokémon off him.

Strangely… he was OK with that.

"_It's not all bad, I met you guys because of it. Now let's kick some butt!_" Anto looked back at Team Rocket. "Listen up Helena and Butch! Give back AZ's Floette or else!"

"That isn't even close!" Cassidy screamed. "That's it, everyone attack! No mercy!" At he call, the other Pokémon of Team Rocket all rushed forward.

Anto's mind raced quickly. "_Lily best defensive wall, now!_" With expert timing, the grass type summoned a storm of leaves that came up and erected a large wall between them and the attackers.

The young trainer looked over to his first Samurai Pokémon. "_Takezo, how's that new Dual Move coming along?!_"

The little Pokémon sheathed his blade and took some kind of praying stance. "**I'm ready, everyone fall back!**"

"Dual move?" AZ repeated in confusion before the Lily the Liligant made another large pile of leaves that both Sentinel and Ohko jumped back on it.

Anto came up to AZ offering a hand. "_This move is kinda devastating, so hurry up!_"

Takezo charged with electricity and then summoned the fake swords of the Sword Dance move. As he did, the wall of leaves were starting to fail quickly from fire and other attacks. Suddenly he unleashed a pulse of thunder towards the ghost like blades which suddenly started glowing a gold yellow.

Lily made the platform rise with all of them in tow. AZ quickly saw what the Patrat was doing and asked. "What is that Pokémon doing?"

"_Basically we're fusing two moves together: Thunderbolt and Swords Dance._"

"Fusing Pokémon moves? Is that even possible?" AZ asked in shock.

"_Has anyone tried?_" The telepathic mute countered.

Back with Takezo, the wall of leaves fell, unleashing all the other Pokémon of Team Rocket to attack the lone Patrat, but the dozen or so Pokémon were not expecting a flurry of electric swords pointing right towards them.

Anto pointed down on them. "_Blade Storm!_"

The thunder swords constructs were let loose on the on the unsuspecting enemies, getting hit with even one of them was like being hit with a single Thunderbolt. Some of them dodged the attack, but there was one little thing they didn't account for that Anto did.

They were on a submarine; AKA a metal object: AKA a conductor for electrical currents.

It didn't matter if some missed and some hit, as soon as they made contact with the head of the metal floor, the electricity raced across the floor and hit all those that weren't flying or levitating. Even Team Rocket and their Hypno were shocked very heavily.

"_Kryx, now!_"

The Elgyem teleported near the still hypnotized Floette and whacked her with her probe.

"**Ow! Wait what happened?"**

Kryx looked to the Hypno. "**You were poisoned by this neanderthal!**" Then she psychically blasted the Pokémon into the open cage hole that AZ and Anto were supposed to go into before grabbing Floette and teleporting the two of them back with Anto and the others.

"**AZ!**" The strange colored Floette called out and hugged her friend.

"Floette thank goodness." The giant hobo returned the hug.

"_Kryx get ready for round two. Takezo again!_ _Blade Storm!"_ Anto called out.

Cassidy and Butch shook themselves out of the shock and looked up. "Why that little twerp! Hurry up and blast him out of the… where's the Patrat?" Cassidy started before she realized that the little Patrat was nowhere in sight.

"**Get off me you flying runt!** (Roar! Growl!)"

The looked to the side to see Cassidy's Charizard trying to shake off Takezo who was taking a free ride.

"**Gladly." **Takezo complied before running up to his head and kick off from it to jump, making the evolved starter flinch as the normal type gained more air. Funny enough, he was right above both Butch and Cassidy… along with even more and bigger Blade Storms. "**HA!**"

"AAAAHH!?" Cassidy and Butch moved out of the way, but then they noticed that the attack didn't go for them, but once more in the open hatch towards the cell.

Inside the Cell, the Hypno slowly regained consciousness after being thrown into the cell only to see a hail of huge thunder sabers raining down on him. "**Oh Arceu—**"

The Submarine rocked hard, cracking the ice and causing the submarine to implode on itself. With the water starting to come back the submarine shook violently and most of Team Rocket's Pokémon and Team Rocket were trying to get their sea legs back.

Kryx came in and teleported with Takezo back on the platform.

For some reason though, Takezo looked to be glowing… "**Anto, the last Blade Storm is ready, the power really stored up.**"

"Why is he glowing?" AZ spoke out as Anto motioned both him and his Floette to back up a bit.

"_Long story short: it works like Furry Cutter, it gets stronger after each use. It's just it only goes up to three._" AZ was about to ask, why does it only go up to three? But then Anto looked back to his Pokémon. "_Everyone, hit them hard and hit them fast! Use all your long range attacks!_"

Takezo jumped, Ohko gathered energy in his palm, Lily absorbed power, Sentinel embraced his ghostly essence, and Kryx silently moved her arms…

Anto pointed. "_Fire!_''

Kryx sent a blast of psychic energy towards the submarine; Sentinel brought down a fierce Dragon breath to his enemies; Lily fired an empowered Energy Ball; Ohko threw a condensed Focus Blast; and Takezo unleashed the biggest set of electrical blades hailing down on them.

Needless to say the attacks all gathered up together and created a huge explosion. Out of the dust, Team Rocket and their Pokémon were seen flying off.

"I can't believe we got beaten by another twerp!" Cassidy exclaimed.

"I can't believe he remembered my name!"

"But we can't believe we're blasting off again!" They cried out before they became nothing but a speck in the sky.

* * *

"You've got some good Pokémon Anto. I would tell you to be safe in your travels, but I think you're in good company."

"_You too AZ. I hope you do… whatever it is you're trying to do?_" What? He was mysterious hobo with normal smelling hands. He didn't know much about him.

The two parties said their farewell, on their way back to the Pokémon center towards the others, Anto recalled everyone but Sentinel.

"_Hey can we talk?_"

"**Oh sure what's up?**"

"… _Do you really not care about dying?_"

Sentinel stopped and looked over to Anto. "**What are you talking about? I'm a little sad that I don't get to live as long as some others, but we all die anyway. I may not be as smart as Kryx or Ohko**."

Anto chose wisely not to comment and let Sen continue on.

"**But I figured that staying with you guys for my last year really is a fun deal. I don't see anything wrong with that.**"

So basically, Sentinel saw death and life differently from that of Anto. It's true he understood the concept of death, but he didn't fear or put much thought about it as the mute did. Rather, Sentinel seemed more concerned about who he was with before his time came.

"_AZ was right._" Anto smiled as he looked towards the setting sun in the sky.

"**What was he right about? Did I miss something?**"

The amnesiac petted the ghost dragon type. "_Oh nothing Sentinel. Just… getting my bearings._"

* * *

**{Author Notes.} **

**Sorry this took so long. I had a lot of things to do and I still didn't do them right in my life. Le sigh.**

**Ahh well. Here's the new chapter! Butch and Cassidy have appeared! Which means the others hunting down Anto are closing in on the boy as we speak! **

**One little note is Takezo's new Dual Move: Blade Storm it is surprisingly very powerful. It works much like Fury Cutter in that it gets stronger with each use-getting that from the power of the Swords Dance Boost-However, it can only be used three times and the third use for that day is a very powerful that could rival a Hyper Beam or Explosion.**

**But I cannot wait for the next few chapters! Things are going to pick up and maybe just maybe we'll meet Anto's final sixth member!**

**Trust me… I always grin when thinking of that peculiar Pokémon.**

**Edit: thanks to ADDBaby for noticing a particularly awkward wording.**

**Before I leave you all off, I have one little deleted scene and blooper reel to tell you...**

{Blooper: Stop Probing!}

"_Kryx, now!_"

The Elgyem teleported near the still hypnotized Floette and whacked her with her probe.

"**Ow! Wait what happened?"**

Kryx looked to the Hypno. "**You were poisoned by this neanderthal!**"

Then she took her probe and telekinetically shoved…

Up above, everyone winced. "_Dang it Kryx!_"

Back down, Cassidy and Butch looked on horrified.

As for the Hypno…

"**LORD ARCEUS ALL MIGHTY!**?**"**

Kryx hugged AZ's Floette and screamed out mightly. "**Take that Religion! Science for the win! Oh, and Arceus is a Scientist!**" Then she teleported away.


	32. Ep 32: Heroism

Episode 32: Even Heroes need Heroes

[Some nights ago…]

"It's been a while since I've been here… sorta." Anto spoke out loud as he started walking down what looked to be an endless church corridor. No matter how far he looked, he could only see an endless and regal red carpet in front of him with almost an infinite amount of benches that were beside the elongated carpet. The ceiling was filled with beautiful rainbow window mosaics that gave the illusion of rainbow light cascading down on his path.

It was starkly different from his last dream world for sure.

As he kept walking, he noticed something hop in front of his path. It was the same as all of his other dream Guardians, beings made of pure stars and space like the night sky, but unlike the Ursaring and Noctowl, whose sizes were greater than usual; this very much smaller and strange Bunnleby stood in its path and tilted his head as it looked to Anto.

Knowing about his previous talk with Hoopa, Anto kneeled down towards the small cosmic Pokémon that was twitching his nose.

"Um Hey."

"…"

"I… I have so many questions. … Will you answer them for me?"

The cosmic protector shook his widdle~ (little) head.

"Why?" Anto asked but was a little hurt. "Aren't you here to protect me?"

The strange dream being nodded their head this time.

"Wait you are? But… what are you protecting me from?"

Suddenly, the light around the church corridor started to die quickly and sounds of shattering glass came from behind him.

Anto snapped his head back, already noticing the Bunnelby was standing like a vanguard to protect him from something. He briefly looked back to notice that the small creature was no longer in front of him, but now behind him. The small little creature had moved faster than the boy could move his neck. However, he did not pay attention to that. Rather, he saw that at the very edge of his sight… there was something dark among all the light.

And it was coming closing in very fast.

The light started fading in the distance, followed by shattered windows and benches being tossed aside by an invisible and violent wind. As it came closer, Anto noticed three pale glows heading towards his direction.

"Run!"

The amnesiac didn't need a second to think about how the Guardian spoke out and ran as quickly as he could in the opposite direction. He heard the sounds of some kind of epic battle with lights and inhuman cries coming from behind him.

But he could not turn around and look back; he was too scared to even see what was going on.

At this point, he saw a familiar Ring appear in front of his path and out of the ring came Hoopa.

"**Yeesh! Stay still will… you… aww crap! Hurry up meat bag! Hurry it up right now!**" From relief then slowly into fear, the strange Ghost and Psychic Pokémon commanded the boy to run faster straight towards his opened ring.

At this, Anto swore he heard the sound of glass shattering even faster with darkness appearing in the corner of his eyes. That was more than enough incentive for him to run faster and dive into Hoopa's ring.

"OOF!" The brown eyed boy yelled as he suddenly found himself landing on something… rather soft. He opened his eyes to find himself in an eerily familiar theater.

"**OK…**" Hoopa appeared on a theater seat beside the dreaming boy who was really gasping for breath. "**I'm starting to see what they are protecting you from.**"

"What was that!?" Anto threw his hands out in shock. Whatever that thing was, it tried to get him!

"**I don't have any idea myself, but if I had to guess, I think it's the creator of this special Dimension. … It's weird though.**" The Ring Legendary spoke out thoughtfully as he placed a hand on his chin contemplatively.

"What's weird?"

The green eyed Pokémon looked towards the main stage of the theater, where there was nothing but a lonely spot light shining on the center of the stage. "**It's complicated to explain, but basically, that being is not what I expected it to be.**"

"Huh?"

The dimensional Pokémon sighed. "**Trust me, when you've been dimension hopping as long as I have, you gain a twentieth (20****th****) sense for these kinds of things—literally. I know you humans have the potential for six senses maximum sadly, but that's not the point. The point is that the being here doesn't feel 'Complete'.**"

"Complete?"

"**Yeah… hmm… I think we're getting closer to the center of this dimension. This layer… it feels… more solid…**" Hoopa expressed as he looked around.

"… But why does this place feel so very familiar?"

The small legendary's eyes widened as he heard those words. "**Familiar? Oh, wait. You're time is up again.**"

At the sound of the little Pokémon's disappointment, the black haired boy looked down at himself to see he was becoming transparent.

"Well… see ya soon."

"**Stop giving me so much trouble, Human!**"

Even when dreaming, he still had to deal with troublesome Pokémon. "You make it sound like I'm doing it on purpose."

With that, the telepath signed off with a two finger salute and woke back up from his sleep.

* * *

The young Amnesiac admitted that so far in his (new) life, he has seen many a strange things in a very short span of time.

Among those strange things, he could definitely count this as one of the beautiful moments in his life.

"_Wow… look at this place!_" The telepathic boy wandered around the Charge Stone cave, it was like a boy entering a new world of wonder and excitement. He could see the electricity cackle between floating giant blue rocks and how they levitated around like magic.

"I've never seen flying rocks here before!" Jamie admitted as she looked around the place.

"Well you obviously haven't seen a lot of Stealth Rock users, trust me. Is it just me or are they popping up more and more as time goes on?" Wes commented in but was also really taking in the exotic scenery. The only thing Orre had going for them was an island and a volcano, which you could easily find in every other Region. The rest was just sand. It wasn't that impressive.

"Chargestone Cave is one of the most electrical charged places, if not the most electrically charged place in the world. Geologists state that the cave is filled with magnetic minerals that change all their molecular electrons to protons to neutrons sporadically to defy the gravitational pull of the planet." White explained as she walked ahead of the three.

"Wow. That sounded waaayy too sciency." Wes commented to the white cap wearing girl as his Espeon trailed behind him.

"Well you learn about this place quickly in show business. It's the one place in the Region you can't film since the high magnetism levels pretty much messes with any mechanical instrument…" White took out a Poké Ball. "But this place is also one of the few places in the world that…" She threw out the red and white sphere for her Magneton to appear. In a bright flash of light, the Pokémon evolved into a Magnezone from the electrical current of the area.

"**Wow. It feels so much nicer to not be one mind sharing three bodies stuck together.**" The Magnezone moved around before moving towards White. The pony tailed girl lovingly rubbed her new steel and electric type.

"It's really a shame you can't film anything here. The set itself is straight out of a fantasy land." White explained before walking.

"You really are into film aren't you White?" Jamie asked as the group trotted along.

"Well yeah, I had Rickman Alan's and Wills Bruce autograph signed when I was in the set of "Dying Really Hard"."

"No way, you were actually there? Weren't you like really young that time?" Wes pointed out.

"My mom is pretty much a big movie business titan. She has some hand in all of the classics. Though she always did want to try one film in here. It's really a shame since technology couldn't really get through to this beautiful place."

At this point, the amnesiac of the group brought out Ohko and Kryx from his person.

"**Whoa! Everything is blue!**" Was the first thing Ohko seemed to notice in a gravity defying cave.

"**A natural gravity field!**" Kryx looked like her eyes were actually metamorphing into stars of wonder. "**I will go through every nook and cranny until I find out what makes this place tick!**" Two weird orb like machines appeared before the little alien disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Jamie stared at the place the little psychic was previously. "Anto what was that for?"

"_You know that trouble follows me around._" Anto spoke out as he looked around cautiously.

Jamie seemed to recognize what the young trainer was saying and left it at that.

The last time they had said that Anto was over reacting, he got abducted by Aliens. Needless to say, trouble and misfortune were like love obsessed stalkers when it came to the young teen.

So it came to only a little surprise when the cave started shaking.

"**I didn't do that I swear!**" Kryx teleported back with two damaged looking orbiters."**… But I wish I did!**"

"_Kryx, what's going on!?_" The young boy askedas the shaking seemingly got worse.

It was at this point the stalagmites from above broke off and started falling into our party.

"_Kryx, Psychic!_""Espeon, Psychic!" Anto and Wes cried out, making their psychic Pokémon hold in place a dozen or so falling rocks on their party. However, the earth quake did not stop as electricity shout out wildly from the magnetic rocks.

Kryx was unfortunately in between two very charged boulders and when they floated close, Kryx was shocked by a sudden high voltage.

"_Kryx!?_" Anto yelled as he ran after her. Espeon was forced to suddenly carry even Kryx's load and found things even heavier.

"Everyone move!" Wes screamed to them.

If that wasn't bad enough a crack opened up right beneath Espeon's hind leg causing him to lose concentration and slip back.

Everyone panicked as the boulders all started to fall on them. Ohko and Magneton, being the only other Pokémon out, readied to try to defend the others, but they only had enough time to stop a few of them.

"**NEVER FEAR, SUPER NUT IS HERE!**"

Like a silver bullet, something smashed through much of the larger rocks, causing them to explode and shatter into smaller and more harmless stones. This allowed Magneton and Ohko to power up and hit the rest of the dangerous falling boulders.

As the shaking finally came down, Anto rose back up, recalling Kryx back into her Primer Ball, before giving a very very suspicious look.

"_What in the name of all deities that hate me was that?_" The boy spoke as he started walking towards the direction of where the silver and somewhat green blur trailed off to.

Everyone followed in suit, gathering their bearings and seeing other than Kryx and Espeon accidentally tripping up, they were all fine.

There was a cloud of smoke coming from the wall where the strange blur object crashed after being catapulted in blurring speeds.

"… I'm sorry, what do you mean, "All deities that hate me"?" Jamie paused and looked over to Anto, making White and Wes look at him strangely for the very odd choice of words.

"_I am 100 percent convinced I was some kind of evil god in my past life and after my defeat, a piece of my soul was trapped in this boy's body and now is the cosmic equivalent of an epic slap stick comedy for my former enemies on above to enjoy to their hearts content as they feed on the cosmic equivalent of super snacking chocolate._"

…

…

…

Jamie was very hesitant to speak out again. "That was very… wow…" That was really the best anyone could react to that.

"_I had a lot of time to think last night._"

White then recalled something about the boy before they began their journey here. "Did you get sleep last night—"

"_I didn't._"

Kryx had decided she wanted to try out her new Dream Analyzer Helmet and placed it on Anto's head before he fell asleep without his notice last night.

The helmet would have been a success if it didn't ironically keep Anto up awake the night before.

"Hey, White, do you know any fancy Therapists?" Wes whispered to the movie girl.

Before White could check her phone, a sound came from the dust cloud as it started settling down.

"**N-not to worry citizens! I, Super Nut, have saved the day once more!**"

What stumbled out of the crater was a particular Ferrothorn who was wearing a torn up and very old looking bed sheet worn like a cape, and there was a torn up and worn out scarf with holes on it tied up to his face to look like a mask. As the wind fluttered, he looked like something like that of a super hero.

"**So I'm just going to say it right now: Anto is officially a magnet for the screwy Pokémon.**" Espeon noted out loud.

What was not noted out loud was the fact that everyone thought Super Nut was not a viable super hero name. The only thing that it had going for it was that it sorta did make sense since this looked to be one of those _super_ _nut_ _cases_.

"_I'd like to think of it more along the lines of screwy living beings, not just mon._"

The Ferrothorn jumped on top of a boulder where his 'cape' was still fluttering in the wind despite not there being any moving air in the cave currently.

"**No need to thank and praise me citizens! I am just doing my sacred heroic duties!**" he then glanced away heroically, glancing into the beyond wistfully in a dramatic pose with his vine and steel arms.

"**We weren't.**" "**Yo, what's a citizen?**" Espeon and Ohko spoke at the same time with the psychic saying the former sentence and the fighting type the latter.

Anto pointed to the evolved steel and grass type. "_OK so is anyone going to ask why that Ferrothorn is wearing a mask, a cape, and is pretending to be a super hero?_"

"**GASP!?**" The Ferrothorn shouted the word gasp in utter disbelief and shock. "**How did you know my secret identity!?**"

"It was obvious!" Everyone except Ohko shouted out.

"**He's a Ferrothorn!?**" The one armed Sawk cried in surprise. They all ignored him though.

The Ferrothorn jumped back down with flair to his landing. "**Citizens, it is of the highest imperative that my secret identity remains intact for the safety of my friends and family. I must ask you to keep it a secret, for the great good!**"

"Well I'm a thief, so I personally don't care and the greater good doesn't fit my style," Wes spoke out, but the Ferrothorn didn't seem to care. "Then again, what can I gain from telling someone that a Ferrothorn in a strange identity crisis costume that he's a Ferrothorn?"

"**Thank you fellow Heroes! But now I must be off!**" It looked as if the Ferrothorn didn't even listen to a word Wes said. Suddenly he brought back one of his tentacle vines before snapping it like a whip. Amazingly everyone stepped back as they saw the vine stretch out all the way across to the ceiling of the cave.

"Is that Power Whip?" Jamie asked in awe since she never saw that Grass move used like that before.

"**My home is in Grave Danger! And I must shoulder the fate of the World to save it! TRADEMARK CATCH PHRASE!**" The Grass type screamed as he jumped with his two other vine feet, letting the third one stretch out and pull him away like a launched rubber band.

"Wow, is he Web Slinging? Just like the hero, Galvantula Man?" Wes looked on as the Ferrothorn disappeared in the distance of the cave, using his Power Whips to sling his claws across the cave much like an iconic hero.

It was at this point, White looked towards the rest of them. "Did anyone notice that he also said, his home was in great danger?"

"**Hey! You guys!?**" The party turned around to seek a fully evolved Eelektross slithering fast towards them. "**D-Did you… huff… gimme a sec… did you guys see a Ferrothorn—**"

Everyone pointed towards the direction the vine slinger went towards.

"**Why does he never wait for me?**" The Eelektross sighed.

Before the electric type could move, Anto quickly got his attention. "_Wait one second. That weird Ferrothorn said something really weird about how this place was in danger? What is that all about?_"

The floating electric type blinked several times. "**Oh wow, a talking human! I've never seen one of you before! Oh, but yeah. The earthquakes have been really bad lately… but even worse there's the bottom of the cave.**"

"What's at the bottom of the cave?" Jamie walked up before glancing to where the super hero wannabe left.

"**The electricity and magnetism is… I think it's all gathering for some reason in one condensed area. All of us are steel and electric Pokémon and the moment we get even close, we get pulled towards it. I would have been trapped if it was for that Ferrothorn's quick thinking.**"

"What do you mean by gathering? How can magnetism gather together?" White looked confused.

"**We don't know, but it's really dangerous. Some of our younger ones almost got caught in its pull, we've been trying to evacuate everyone towards the surface.**"

"Then, we have to help!" White called out.

"I'm sorry what?" Wes stated in confusion.

Jamie looked towards the Orre Thief. "Wes, they're in trouble! We gotta help them out!"

"Do we have to?" The two girls gave him a glare, when he looked to Anto, the mute just shrugged his shoulders.

"_Hey don't look at me._" He then raised up his hands like a defensive measure, he was not getting in the way of White and Jamie.

"Thanks." The Snagger sarcastically noted.

"Good it's decided. Eelektross, we can help you!" White declared.

"**Oh wow really? Thanks! Follow me!**" The electric type spoke out before making his way in front of the group.

* * *

The floating electric Pokémon lead the group of four downward. However, they were walking down a rather narrow edge that just so happened to loom over a very deep chasm. Unfortunately, since it was so narrow, the group had to recall all of their Pokémon. For some reason, White's new Magnezone was starting to have trouble moving around and Eelektross quickly explained that unless you were acclimated to the growing magnetic field like the native Pokémon here, Steel and Electric type Pokémon would have a problem moving here.

While being led, Jamie and Wes slowed down behind Anto and White.

"Jamie." The Snagger called out softly between them. "Why didn't you lie to us about your gender?"

The Kalos native winced. "I-I didn't lie exactly. I just didn't tell anyone my gender…"

"It really sounds like your hiding something." The former team Snaggem member pushed on before sighing. "Look, I'm not good at this whole socializing thing."

That was obvious, but the female brunette let the blue cloaked boy go on.

"But what I'm trying to say is that I'm worried and if you need help, I'll give some. I do owe you for helping me out with my dad's pocket watch after all." He spoke calmly before glancing down the chasm and breaking eye contact.

Jamie felt touched about that, she really did. Was that why Wes hadn't said anything to both White and Anto?

"Listen…"

Unfortunately for her, the ground started shaking immediately and it was worse than before.

"Wahh!? AAAHHH!?" White yelled as she suddenly lost balance and teetered off the edge of the path!

"_White!_" Anto screamed and acted quickly, grabbing her hand as she fell, but immediately noticed the step he took towards her was suddenly breaking. The Amnesiac thought fast, pulling up White as much as he could and bringing her towards Eelektross who was also reaching for her. As the electric Pokémon grabbed her other hand, the ground beneath the black haired boy collapsed and he ended up falling instead of White.

"Anto!" Everyone else yelled. They all reached for the Pokémon of their choice, but the ground shook hard again, causing them to trip up.

Anto reached for Lily's Poké Ball but found out something as he pressed the sphere as he started falling. The Poké Balls weren't working!

The young teen turned around as he fell, panicking quite hard as he started gaining velocity—

"**Never Fear! Super Nut is here!**"

The mute saw a green vine somehow wrap around him quickly before he felt himself get jerked hard towards the side. He opened his eyes quickly to see that he was swinging at a new speed but no longer falling to his doom.

When the trainer looked at the vine carrying him, he recognized it and the voice belonging to the Ferrothorn dressed in a poor hero get up.

The steel and grass type boldly declared, "**Not to worry mam! The hero always saves the damsel in distress!**"

"_Aww man that was a close one. Thanks a lot—Wait, you think, I'm a girl!?_" Anto telepathically shouted at the still swinging evolved Pokémon.

"**You aren't?**" Super Nut looked genuinely confused.

"_NO!_"

"**But I overheard you saying trouble follows you around, and maidens are always in trouble!**"

"_That is a demeaning and sexist clichéeeeEEH!? Watch out for that—_"

BAM!

Unfortunately, Super Steel was so dumbfounded at the fact Anto was not a girl that he didn't see the magnetic rock that was in the way of his swinging path and crashed face first into it with the plain brown eyed boy.

"… **I'm Okay!**" Ferrothorn pushed himself away thus unknowingly making both him and Knoll swing back the opposite direction.

"_Aww god, everything is spinning…_" Anto spoke out as he felt his head ringing.

"Aaaannnnttoooo!?"

The walking trouble magnet quickly shook his head and tried to point his vision upward towards the direction of the familiar voice. "_White_?" He spoke as he saw a familiar falling figure coming his way. "… _White!? Ferrothorn, get her!_"

"**But I need both of my vines to support us!**"

There was no time to lose then. "_Fine, just get me closer to her!_"

White was falling fast, yet when she saw Anto and the Ferrothorn from awhile ago, she screamed out the unlucky boy's name. Somehow, the boy who was mostly likely to die horribly in their group and the more than likely nut job of a Ferrothorn were the only ones going to somehow save her from falling into a dark chasm of death.

… Oh crap.

"**Never Fear! Super Nut is her—**"

"_Must you always say that!?_" Anto interrupted the evolved Pokémon as he launched himself with Anto towards White. With nothing much to lose, Anto braced himself and grabbed White by the waist as they were flung up and landed on a nearby ledge. … Or rather dropped and crashed on a nearby ledge.

Anto groaned as he opened his eyes he noticed a flustered red face and gorgeous blue eyes staring right back at him.

And the fact his lips was locked with hers…

"_OHMYGOSHSORRY!_" Anto screamed as he got off White with his face so red you could say it was glowing.

"I-It's fine. Y-You didn't mean it…" White tried to calm herself as she broke eye contact and looked back at the chasm. With the way her heart was beating you could swear it was beating rapidly more than when she was falling to her death.

There was also the odd fact he tasted like blueberry—she should stop thinking about it.

"_I wasn't expecting that I swear! I am so sorry!_" Anto's face was really beet red by now as he tried his best not think about how soft her lips were.

"I-It's f-fine really! You still saved my life, so thank you…" White spoke out while trying to dust some of the dirt off her hair.

Change the subject! Change the freaking subject! "_So how did you fall!?_" Anto mentally shouted, desperate to get his mind out of this awkward moment.

"The shaking got worse and then Jamie and Wes were starting to fall—why were they lagging behind us so much I wonder—so Eelektross floated towards them and dove after them, but then another boulder fell from the ceiling and destroyed the path and separated me from them and I ended up falling then I tried to open up my Poké Ball but the magnetic interference was preventing it from working, but then I saw you and asked for your help, so here we are right now!" White spoke rapidly.

The young trainer nodded his head once and shouted quite loudly, "_I'm glad you're safe!_"

"I'm also glad we're safe!"

"**Owww…**" White and Anto saw the wannabe super hero Pokémon was getting his bearings back and staggering towards the two of them. "**And thus another life saved thanks to Super Nut! Victory Hug!**" The Pokémon with the Iron Barbs ability screamed out before coiling the two humans quickly and embracing them in a group hug.

They both screamed in pain. (Except Anto because he's mute. Duh!)

* * *

[Later.]

"Why are we heading downward instead of back up?" White asked as Ferrothorn was leading the two further down into the chasm.

"**Because there's one more person down here! And as a hero I cannot leave a person behind!**" The grass and steel dual type proclaimed as he started walking down.

The mute rolled his eyes, but White suddenly stopped in her tracks. The amnesiac suddenly seemed worried and asked. "_What's wrong?_"

"Anto… I understood him."

"_Yeah? So?_"

"Espeon isn't here and Kryx is still recovering. How is he able to understand me, and I able to understand him?"

The male trainer quickly had his eyes opened before he noticed Ferrothorn nonchalantly walking downward as if he couldn't hear this conversation. "_I… I think this is me…_" The boy spoke out.

"You have the power to translate between Pokémon and human language?" The vice president of the BW Company asked with disbelief.

"_It happened before technically. I used to rely on the psychic Pokémon to translate for me, but then I started doing that myself._ _I think the ability that allows me to talk to Pokémon and others… is evolving._"

The blue eyed girl looked ahead. "We'll talk about this later, Ferrothorn is walking up ahead."

As she passed him by, the jacket wearing boy wondered what exactly was this ability if it could change and evolve without him noticing. What did that mean anyway?

"… _Ferrothorn—I mean… Super… Nut._" Oh Arceus why was he doing that?

"**Yes, Damoiseau in distress?**"

"Damoiseau in distress?" The movie buff gave a small smile at the slight play at words.

"_Wait is that a male version of Damsel?_" The mute's face fell when White confirmed his suspicions. "_Ignoring that for now, how exactly do you know that there's anyone left? We heard from Electross that you two moved everyone to safer grounds when he was trying to show us what was wrong._"

The Pokémon jumped a gap on their path before landing on the bottom floor. "**That's the thing; I think a fellow citizen of life has been accidentally causing our home to tremble.**"

White and Anto looked at each other. "What?" They both repeated as they followed the wannabe super hero.

"**I think it's best if I just show everyone. Careful, being close enough to even see it causes problems.**" Ferrothorn strangely worded before walking along.

As the two followed, they started to notice a loud humming sound that was getting progressively louder and louder. Not to mention, cackle of electricity around them started getting progressively more and more active.

Despite these growing signs, the three found themselves at the center of the Chargestone Cave's problem.

There was a giant, purple electrical crystal that was zapping the ground over and over. Unlike the gaint blue crystals in the cave, this one was easily the size of a two story building and was blasting electricity like a powerful electric Pokémon left and right.

One bolt was heading right towards the three until Super Steel stepped forward and activated a Protect move to repel the blast.

"Whoa. Thanks!" White and Anto expressed their gratitude. "What's with that purple crystal?"

"**It just suddenly appeared one day and started causing earth quakes and spikes in magnetic pulls, You have no idea how many times I had to shock myself to match the same charge as this thing so I wouldn't get magnetized.**"

The crystal continued to zap around the area, some reach a little close to the trio than they wanted and made them instinctively close together.

Anto looked at the center of the giant purple crystal… he swore he thought he saw a figure inside…

**Help****me…**

Where did… what was that?

"_Did any of you hear that?_" Anto asked as he looked around.

"What? No?"

"**Besides the electricity? No I haven't.**" Super Nut called out while keeping the force field up. "**But this only confirms it! I knew there was some poor person here!**"

It was at this moment, the ground shook again, but something was different. It didn't quite feel like an earthquake this time.

"What was that!?" White screamed before the ground behind them burst open. To their surprise, a giant green and black snake like creature appeared before them and trapped them between the Purple Crystal and the strange creature.

Anto had his mind flash with information. "_Z-Zygarde!? What's a Kalos Legendary Pokémon doing all the way in Unova!?_"

"That thing's a Pokémon!?" White screamed out in shock she was looking at her PokéDex but her national dex was unable to identify the Pokémon in front of her.

**^*&amp;%$#%$!*&amp;^#(*&amp;…**

The mysterious Legendary Pokémon of ground and Dragon started scanning the area before the Purple Crystal started humming and shooting a rather impressive bolt of purple electricity towards the dual legendary.

Even though it was part ground, for some reason the electricity seemed to actually be affecting it! the green, hexagon like plates all over the Pokémon were starting to change from the original color to purple.

"_I really REALLY don't like the look of that!_" Anto screamed psionically as he brought his hands to his head.

The shock finally stopped attacking the legendary Pokémon. However, all of its green parts were still purple and smoke was coming off it. As it turned his head back towards the three… it's main two eyes glowed red.

**!********++-!**

It preformed some kind of foreign noise before charging right for Super Steel's Force Field!

The impact threw away and separated the three making them slam into the wall across the other side. Ferrothorn was conscious enough to shoot out a large bunch of Leech Seeds to rapidly grow plants that softened the landing of both humans. It still hurt a lot however.

**^%%$%^%%^&amp;!**

Anto slowly got back up and noticed the super hero standing in front of both him and White standing between the legendary and them.

"**Hurry! Go there's another pathway out if you go just to the right of this wall! Take your friend and leave!**"

"_What about you!?_"

"**A hero never leaves someone in need!**" The hero declared loudly and with far more iron conviction as he stared down at the legendary Pokémon. "**Besides with the power of my Super Cape, I will be invincible!**"

Wait what?

"Anto, come on! We don't have Pokémon!" White got back up and tried to help out Anto.

"_We can't just leave him here!_"

**! ! (****&amp;$%#^**

Zygarde made another roar with unrecognizable sounds before looking to gather energy.

"**Go! I'll hold him off!**" Ferrothorn shot out a large amount of floating boulders, signaling he knew Stealth Rocks then he used two Power Whips to snap two of his vines in such a way he looked to be positioning himself to sling shot himself to the corrupted legendary which is exactly what he did. Zygrade was body tackled right into his face, causing his beam to misfire and hit some of the rocks higher up.

"Anto we need to go now!" White screamed as she grabbed Anto's wrist and started running off with the hesitant boy.

Still he looked back seeing the fight between the evolved Pokémon with the Legendary. However, despite the fact he landed a clean hit, the legendary didn't even look phased from the damage of the steel type and quickly launched a Dragon Pulse on the super hero when it was trying to get to higher ground.

The attack knocked the Pokémon back, and burned his mask and cape off.

"_No!_" Anto screamed as he ran back towards the Pokémon.

"Anto!?" White shrieked as she saw Anto run back towards the crystal.

Zygarde turned back towards the two human and prepared another Dragon Pulse attack.

"_Oh snap._" Anto and White quickly ducked for cover in the surrounding rocks. The beam of dragonic energy trailed to where they were and then was dragged upward. The upper walls gave way and blocked off the exit out of the cave.

"He's just a stubborn as Black!" White screamed to herself before checking out of her cover. Zyrgarde spotted her and this time started covering himself in dragonic energy. "Uh oh!"

Anto spotted White getting up and running away in the opposite direction. He panicked as he saw Zygarde locking sights on the Vice President and he quickly decided to get to Super Steel and wake him up since he was their only way out.

"_Hey wake up! Wake up! We need your help now more than ever!_" Anto pointed his voice towards the Ferrothorn as the earth shook violently again. The mute couldn't understand though, he seemed to actually be still conscious, so why wasn't he moving?!

He ran up to the fallen Pokémon, trying see what was wrong, but then he noticed something. The Pokémon was shivering, he was putting his vines over him like he was trying to duck and cover from something.

He was afraid wasn't he?

But how? He looked so previously brave a while a go!

The amnesiac placed a hand on him. "_Hey what's wron—_"

The moment he touched the Ferrothorn's head, a vision came to him. A really strong vision that almost looked like a memory…

* * *

It was the Chargestone cave again, but this time, it looked bigger for some reason.

There was a little Ferroseed hopping and rolling along the floor. Suddenly, a rock fell down beside it and he quickly panicked and hopped behind a rock for safety. He shivered in fear as he looked back only to see a tiny rock.

However, as he turned back he saw all the other children Pokémon pointing and laughing at him.

"**Hahaha! ScaredyPurrlion! ScaredyPurrlion!**" They jeered coldly.

The little Ferroseed teared up and ran away. He couldn't help it. He was so scared of everything. He didn't have any friends or family. He was always so scared of everything…

One day, he found something strange on the floor. It looked like a magazine or human book. The fearful Ferroseed seemed frightened at the object lying on the floor and stood three feet away from it. But he something on the cover that looked strange: a human with a weird blanket on his back. Slowly, and very very carefully, the small little Pokémon finally came onto the book. It was comic book about Hero Man, a super hero that saved people who was in need. He didn't understand the words and text, and he had a lot of trouble trying to turn pages until he evolved (Until he found some tricks he could use with his leech seed to help him turn the pages) but he noticed the main character, a man who looked to be scared of everything find a magical cape that turned him into a super hero with a mask.

The art spoke volumes to the young impressionable Pokémon. This coward like him found a magic cape and turned into a super hero! He fell in love with the idea with the hero having so many friends, so much powers, and never being alone anymore…

So when he finally evolved, Ferrothorn… 'procured'… what he thought was the Cape of Power from a laundry clothes line from the nearby city. He tied it around his body and felt the power coming out of him.

With the power of the cape, and eventually making a cool mask, Ferrothorn became the self proclaimed hero of justice! Protecting the innocent and saving lives! A name with epic awesomeness! Super Nut!

And he would never be afraid of anything again as long as he had his cape.

* * *

But now his cape was gone.

"**I don't have my powers anymore! We're doom! I don't know what to do…**" The Ferrothorn was near tears and he shivered and covered himself with his vines. He seemed to have this idea that he was a Hero as long as he had the cape…

Anto didn't know what that was, but he had seen why Ferrothorn was so frozen with fear. What could he do? He was placing his heroic deeds on the fact he had a torn up blanket and never on himself…

"_Ferrothorn! Listen to me, it was never the cape! You did those things! You really are a hero!_"

"**No I'm not! I'm a no-good ScaredyPurrlion without my Super Cape! I'm sorry! I didn't want to trap you here!**" He started sobbing and crying.

Anto had to think fast, It looked like White had lost Zygarde in the cover, but it wouldn't be long before he would turn around and look at them.

…!?

An idea came across Anto quickly as he took off his jacket and wrapped it over Ferrothorn. "_Well then it's time to give you another Super Cape._"

"**Are you an idiot? This is just your jacket! It's not a Super Cape!**" The Ferrothorn shouted, getting the attention of the Dual Type Legendary.

The Amnesiac really hopped this would work, so suppressing all fear, he inhaled and smiled kindly towards Ferrothorn. "_It's not. It's a Super Jacket and it's got an even better super power than any Super Cape._"

"**A… better super power?**"

White looked back and saw Zygarde heading towards Ferrothorn and Anto. Why was he out in the open!? Ugghhh! He is really starting to get on her nerves like Black! She quickly got a stone and threw it at the Dragon type, catching his attention again before hiding behind a rock.

Back with the two, Anto smiled and nodded. He was also glad that White was giving him more time with this. If it wasn't so awkward between them, he would kiss her again. Key word was 'awkward'. "_Yeah it's one of the best super powers out there! You see this jacket has the power to __bring__ out one's special power._"

Ferrothorn sniffed, but stopped crying.

"_We all have our own very special power deep within all of us. And this jacket here has the power to bring it out, but we gotta believe we can do it ourselves. Look at how that Jacket is fluttering! It means you've got the greatest inner power in the entire world!_"

"**R-Really?**"

"_It's enough to save us all and it's way better than some simple Super Cape… but in order for the power to work, I have to remove the Super Jacket…_"

"**W-Why?**" Ferrothorn took a step back in shock.

Anto raised a hand carefully and spoke gently as he could.

"_The Super Jacket has the power to bring out one's greatest potential, but for it to work best, the person has to believe in themselves and not the jacket or else the power won't work._"

"**Then I can't use this! I hate myself!**"

"_How can you hate yourself when you've got so much power? You have shown yourself worthy of the Super Cape! Don't tell me the amazing Super Nut is backing down?_"

"**I'm not Super Nut, I'm just a coward!**" He screamed, catching the attention of Zygrade once more before White threw another stone at the Legendary. This made the dragon type start firing Dragon Pulses near White's area.

Anto knew he had to hurry. "_Ferrothorn, listen to me, you're more than just what you think you are. I believe you are the greatest hero in the world! And the bravest and heroic person I know!_" Ferrothorn looked into Anto's eyes, they were filled with hesitation, but they were running out of time."_Now I'm going to remove the jacket, and the true hero within you will finally awaken…._"

Anto slowly reached for his jacket again, Ferrothron took one step back… before stepping forward towards Anto again as he took off his jacket off the steel and grass type.

"**I-I don't feel different!**" Ferrothorn cried out.

"_But you are. You just need to believe in yourself._" Anto was honestly putting his all of his faith into Ferrothorn. He really did see the great potential in him from the few times they met before hand; he needed for the Pokémon to realize that himself.

"ANTO LOOK OUT!" White's voice broke the moment as the two looked over to see the corrupted Legendary firing a Dragon Pulse right at them.

The Amnesiac covered himself by instinct, fearing the worse.

To his surprise, besides the shaking, he thought his death would be a little more painful. When he opened his eyes, he saw Ferrothorn was now defending him with another Protect barrier.

"_YOU DID IT!_" Anto shouted in excitement. To be honest, he really thought he was goner there.

"**I… I did! OH MY ARCEUS I DID! I REALLY DO HAVE THE POWER! SUPER NUT HAS RETURNED! EVIL DOERS BEWARE! WEAK AND BULLIED REJOICE! FOR THE GREAT HERO HAS RETURNED… thanks to his friend.**" Ferrothron excitedly shouted with the same heroic pride when they first met, but there was something far more genuine in his words and at his last sentence, he calmed down and smiled wide and gratefully at Anto.

Zygarde flared with Dragonic energy and unleashed an Outrage attack on the barrier again. But this time, Ferrothorn wrapped a vine around Anto and Power Whipped onto to a high rock floating from his Stealth Rock attack. He grabbed the two of them out of the path of the Pokémon before landing to where White was hiding.

"What the heck were you doing standing there!?" White screamed. "Do you have any idea how many times his attacks almost hit me!?"

"_Sorry! Sorry!_" Anto spoke out.

"Can we please get out of here now!?"

"**Not without saving them!**" Super Nut declared as Zygrade shook off crashing into a wall when he missed them.

"How!?" White asked. "We gotta leave, maybe come back again to help them when we're ready!?"

As soon as she said this, the Giant Purple Crystal started shaking violently and gathering more and more energy as well as shoot some out.

"Oh come on!" The movie buff complained.

Anto looked to see that Zygrade was in still in Outrage mode, and an idea came to him. "_Nut, I have an idea! We have to move now though! I'll point where!_"

The idea was sent quickly and Ferrothorn grabbed both kids with his vines before whipping himself towards a seemingly random flying Stealth Rock.

Zygrade saw them and charged right for them.

"Anto, this better work!" The blue eyed girl complained.

"_I hope it does too!_"

Super Nut saw Zygarde charging right for them with uncanny speed. "**Now!?**"

"_Not yet!_"

"**Now?!**"

"_Just a little…_" The charging Pokémon was closing in very quickly!

"Anto!?"

"_Now!_" Ferrothorn quickly Power Whipped to a another location and brought the two kids with him, making the Dragon type crash through the floating rock… and slam into the Crystal while being full of raw dragon energy!

"_Protect!_" The amnesiac called out as the dust cloud and shock waves came immediately after them and swallowed them whole.

Then a green vine shot out of the smoke and a metal claw gripped into a flying boulder. Ferrothorn brought White and Anto out of the smoke higher up in the air.

"Did… did that work?" The female looked at the smoke that was starting to rise away from them.

"_I think it did._" The young male trainer spoke out as they looked over to the smoke, but couldn't see a thing.

"**You all have my thanks.**"

A voice appeared in all of their heads that wasn't Anto's. Before anyone could react, a giant purple creature just instantly appeared in front of them.

"_No way… Mewtwo?_" Anto spoke out in awe in front of the legendary Artificial Pokémon. White took her PokéDex again but just like with Zygarde, it couldn't identify this Pokémon.

The large psychic, bipedal, and almost feline like Pokémon nodded in confirmation, but raised a brow as he did so. "**You know me, human?**"

"_I… I don't know. I think I do?_"

Mewtwo tried to read his mind, but for some reason there was something blocking his powers from reading the boy's mind fully. He was curious as to why he couldn't read his mind, but then…

"**I'm glad to see your safe and sound! All in a day's work with Super Nut!**" Ferrothron proudly declared.

"**Yes… I suppose that's right. I must thank you all for saving me from that imprisonment.**" Or perhaps he was far more drained than he realized if he couldn't read that boy… or in fact the other Pokémon and the female human as well.

"Wait imprisonment? Who did that to you?" White asked.

"… **Even I do not know who he truly was…**" Mewtwo explained mysteriously.

"_Uhh come again?_"

Mew two shook his head. "**He was the reason I came to Unova in the first place, I sensed something all the way from even Mt. Q… where I was from, then when I came here I saw… it is best not to mention now. Still, I didn't know my prison would even attract and corrupt a Zygarde all the way from Kalos.**"

"**What ever happened to that guy?**" Ferrothorn asked.

"**He is fine. It seems that he has gone back to his home region now that my prison is no longer destabilizing the magnetic hold this place has.**"

"I'm kind of curious about this guy who could seal and corrupt two legendaries! Who is he?" White asked with honest worry.

"… **I do not know myself, yet… you boy.**" Anto perked up as he saw Mewtwo look to him. "**I sensed that you could still hear me in my prison, it may be a long shot, but I have this sneaking suspicion that there is a reason you could still hear me. There is a possibility you might be connected with That Man.**"

"_That… that doesn't sound too good. … Can we get out of this cave now? I'm worried about Wes, Jamie, and that Eelektross._"

Mewtwo unfolded his arms and closed his eyes. "**In that case, let me help. I do owe you a favor. …**" His eyes snapped open with psychic energy and then in a blink of an eye, the three of them were gone.

When they were gone, Mewtwo placed a hand on his chest. "**I am far weaker than I imagined to be… what kind of power was that?**"

* * *

"What. The. Heck?" Wes spoke out as he, his Espeon, Jamie, Eelektross, White, Ferrothorn, and Anto found themselves at the outskirts of Mistralton City.

"How—Anto what happened!?" Jamie looked over to the stupefied boy.

"_Well… I think we met two legendary Pokémon and one of them brought us all here._"

The other two humans blinked as they absorbed that really underwhelming sentence.

"Something tells me you just gave us the short version." Wes raised his brow. They knew Anto well enough to know there was soooo much more to what he had just said.

"He did. It's really long." White assured them as she removed her cap to wipe her forehead.

"**And thus, another page of adventure added to the epic tales of Super Nut!**" The grass and steel type boldly declared that made everyone look at him weirdly. "**But now it's time for a new chapter to begin! The Amazing Tales of Super Nut and his new sidekick, Danger Damoiseau!**" The super hero pointed towards Anto.

"_I'm sorry what?_" The amnesiac asked in stupor before Ferrothorn wrapped a vine quickly around him. "_Wait—_" Not matter how fast he said that, it was never meant to finish.

"**Come Danger Damoiseau! We have the innocent to protect! TRADEMARK CATCH PHRASE!**" The Ferrothorn suddenly shot out a bunch of Stealth Rocks and quickly Power Whipped two of them before launching both Anto and the super hero faster towards the city.

"_Wait no! SttoooOOOOOOOOPPPPpppppp…._" Anto's telepathic cry faded into the distance as he was shot up and yanked up from the ground and trailed along the sky as if he was shot out of a giant sling shot.

There was a distant sound of something crashing loudly and smoke rising to the sky.

"Sooo… what exactly did happen?" Wes turned to White as they started hearing the closing in sounds of sirens.

"I'll explain on our way… but what about you, Eelektross?" The blue eyed girl looked towards the Electric type.

"**Well… you all did save my home. But honestly? I've really got nothing better to do,**" He then looked towards Wes and Espeon. "**Mind if I just follow you guys?**"

"Sure thing," Wes spoke out as he threw a Ultra Ball at the fully evolved Pokémon and caught him easily. "At least now I have an electric type to my many dark types and one psychic." He spoke as he picked up Eelektross' new ball.

Jamie looked back towards the city that had even more loud siren noises that could be heard from where they were. "Uh guys? What about Anto?"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**I'm sure he's fine Jamie, you know those main characters in comedy based stories: they're near impossible to kill under normal (And Unlikely) means!**

**Meet Anto's Sixth partner! The Super Hero, Super Nut, The Ferrothorn! And with this, Anto has a full party of Pokémon! Woot! Way to go bro!**

**Can anybody say super hero team up? (Imagine Sentinel, Kryx, Ohko, and Super Nut posing Power Ranger Style with Lily face palming in the back ground and Takezo staring on with an unreadable face. Now imagine Anto as he walks in to find out four masked Pokémon have been ironically terrorizing the people of the city. … And they all trace it back to him. [Not only that, imagine them doing this every time they're in a new city/town] Anto: DANG IT GUYS!)**

**Anywho, who was it that sealed up (a) Mewtwo all the way in Chargestone cave and what was that person doing there!? What exactly is in the center of Anto's Dream Dimensions he and Hoopa are obviously getting closer to? Is Anto's power evolving? Will there actually be romance in this story!? (Well I already know, but I'm asking you so you have something to think about later on.)**

**A slight bit on that. I've been reading a few other OC adventure stories and I've always noticed something when it comes to a trainer having power. I notice that it usually makes the trainer stronger, to the point where it looks like they themselves can fight and be on par with powerful beings.**

**I don't have anything against this, but I have seen a lot of this. So, Anto has power, but if you pay close attention, it's never related to combat.**

**Anto has gained a new power in helping other people understand Pokémon and vice versa, yet there is also a new power where he has the potential to look into other people's memories. I kind of based my power into adding more into the characters of others.**

**Speaking of potential, with a new member, comes new fighting and battle style! Have you noticed Super Nut's style? It's based of Spider Man's way of web slinging. Power Whip to launch himself like the web and the Flying Rocks of Stealth Rocks are used for him to grapple around like Batman (LEGO MOVIE HYPE!) and Spider Man (And sometimes Link). Just like the others, he's going to have a very diverse style of fighting I can't wait to show you all.**

**This chapter was obviously longer than I expected, but I like how it turned out so far.**

**Next time on Pokémon: Anto's bizarre Adventure! The most unbelievable thing is happening!**

**Don't believe me? Here's a preview!**

Anto: _… M… Mom?_

**That's all you're getting! Thanks for reading!**

* * *

[?]

He opened his violet hued eyed slowly as he sat on top of Dragonspiral Tower in a meditative state.

"_Mewtwo has escaped._"

At this moment, a Gallade with a different color swap stepped out of the shadows. Instead of green he was red at the top, instead of white, he was black, and as for the triangle in his chest, it was the color white, along with the top curved fin on top of his head.

The strange colored Gallade walked up and bowed with one knee down.

"**My lord.** **Allow this one servant to make a guess for your sudden movement: did a certain someone help with the escape with Mewtwo?**" The Gallade spoke calmly as he kept his head and knee down.

"_Yes. I sense him; he is coming closer. … It's only a matter of time until he comes here and undo what has long been erased…_"

"**We are simply waiting on the others, my lord. The other three should be making their way here soon, but I believe this… Team Plasma has been spotted scanning this place as well.**"

"_Let them. For the seal to weaken, both Stones must absorb the essence locked within once they step into this tower. Once that is done, it shall finally be time for the __Seed__ to grow and be nurtured._"

"**My lord, what about Dimension Enterprise? By now they surely realize the boy is heading here. We've already detected their forces across Icirrus City in the guise of a fund raiser event.**"

The violet eyed man under the hood laughed. "_Are they actually using the idea that they destroyed in Nimbasa? That is not subtle in the slightest._"

"**People do like the idea of free money, my lord.**"

"**You know what I like!? I definitely like to bring the pain!**" A crazed and hungry voice came out of the darkness. Much like the Gallade, there was a Lucario with different colors than that of its shiny and normal version. This Lucario was actually a deep violet instead of blue, and had orange colors instead of its usual black areas. As for the color of its chest fur, it was colored silver with his spikes colored deep crimson. Needless to say this Pokémon was incredible jarring to look at.

The strange colored Lucario brought his fists together with enflamed violet Aura. "**Just send me out there so I can kill them all!**"

"_You'll have to wait on that. By the time I send you, you will probably shed enough blood to fill the three great lakes of Sinnoh._" The robed and hooded man stood up, and signaled to the Gallade to stand back up.

"**Oh that sounds glorious! Thanks boss!**"

"_Still, some precautions will not harm us in the long run. Comb through the tower once more and check to see if our seal breakers could be spotted by anyone passing by. Also, try and make an extra escape route if necessary._"

"**Yes my lord.**" "**You got it boss.**" The two fighting types disappeared in an instant.

The Robed man looked towards the sky.

"_Soon... We shall all be free, and all lies will die._" He walked to a large hole in wall and stared at the endless sea in the distance."_What is your next move, oh descendant of Gul'xan?_"

* * *

**{One more Announcement.}**

**On April 16 2015, someone posted one of his first Pokémon Fanfiction, "The Flames Of Revolution" here in fanfiction./net and I reviewed it the first time I saw it come out by absolute chance.**

**I didn't expect to become friends with that writer who help me out and made me feel better overall.**

**Thanks MangoLimePie. **

**Let's hope that this year, crazier and epic adventures are just waiting right around the corner.**


	33. Ep 33: Who Are You?

Everyone was on high alert. Yellow had been kidnapped. All of her friends sprung into action, some consisting of the most competent trainers the world had to offer.

Conveniently, most of them were already gathered together. However, it was supposed to be a happy gathering celebrating someone's new doctorate degree.

Many of them were there, some of the gymleaders of Kanto, celebrating their previous friend's success in his studies, many of the older Pokédex users from when it was first made by Professor Oak, even Lance the current Champion of Kanto and Johto attended the party for his firends…

And despite having some of the greater minds in that room…

Slam!

"Dang it!"

Not all of them were cool headed.

"Red, calm down!" Misty, the red haired gym leader of Cerulean City said as she came back from bringing cake to Brocks' siblings in a different part of the gym. The kids shouldn't have to deal with this.

"But Hunter J took Yellow! She could be anywhere by now, and the longer we wait the more trouble she could be in!" The former Kanto Champion cried out.

"We're all worried about her," Green Oak, the Viridian City gym leader spoke out sharply. "But running around aimlessly is not going to help her. We have to think on our feet to catch Hunter J, so let's think. Hunter J is one of the best black market mercenaries, if not the best in the entire world. Her only botch, if you can even call it that since it technically happened after she successfully finished a job, was when Azelf and Mespirit's Future Sight attack had a delay reaction in sinking her flying fortress into the bottom of Lake Valor. Other than that, she's had a near perfect record in doing whatever is hired of her with only my younger brother and Ash barely stopping her."

"We all know that, so what's the point?" Gold from New Bark Town drawled on as he lay down on the couch. "… Oh wait…"

Red seemed to calm down and realize what his long time rival Green was telling him. "She's one of the best mercenaries in the world. In other words, someone hired her to capture Yellow. The question is who and why?"

"Why not call that younger brother of yours?" Blue, a former thief turned hero pointed that question towards the Viridian Gym Leader. "Maybe he might know something."

"I doubt it. My brother is visiting the Ferrum Region and trying to study and compare something called Synergy that the trainers there use a lot. He was planning to compare the notes between that and Mega Evolution."

"Then how about Ash Ketchum? He also fought against Hunter J." Silver, a red head former thief pointed out.

Everyone else in the room except the Pokédex users from Kanto sweat dropped at the sound of that sentence.

"No offence to Ash," Red rubbed his head nervously. "But…"

Misty huffed and finished for the older black haired trainer. "He's an idiot. I doubt he would know anything about Hunter J's return."

"Hmm?" Brock of Pewter City and former gym Leader turned breeder turned Doctor fished for his pockets and found his new smart phone ringing. "Well what do you know? Speak of the Darkrai." Everyone turned to the new doctor as he answered the phone. "Hey Ash, I'm guessing you heard the news about Hunter J huh? … Yeah… Yellow was taken," Everyone in the room looked down at the remembrance of that fact until Brock suddenly perked up. "Huh? Wait, what!? Ash, hold up a second, I think everyone needs to hear this." Brock put his phone on a nearby dining table momentarily before going towards his computer screen and putting it on.

"Brock?" Crystal, assistant to professor Elm in New Bark town, and Pokémon catcher extraordinaire asked with curiosity. "What did Ash say?"

"I think Ash knows where Hunter J is heading." Brock spoke up as he finished preparations in his computer and turned it towards everyone else. They were all surprised since just moments ago they all admitted that he would be the one who knew the least. Brock put one last finishing touch before the screen in his computer showed a younger boy who looked to be talking to a Pokémon center phone in the night time.

"Oh right! I forgot, congrats on your doctorate Brock! Sorry I couldn't be there since I'm all the way in Kalos." The raven haired boy with brown hair and a cap smiled towards the darker skinned man.

He ended up smiling in return. "Thanks Ash, but we need to get down to business. You said you think you know where Hunter J is going?"

"Well I'm not so sure on all the details, but I think she's heading towards Unova."

"Unova?" Misty and Red managed to say out at the same time.

"Wait a second, wasn't there a recent terrorist attack there?" The Champion Lance pointed out. "I remember the BW Agency was hosting a worldwide Music Festival appreciation event until it was attacked by a mysterious group of people posing as Team Plasma." He recalled Alder and Wallace filling him in on the event. "What does that have to do with Hunter J?"

"Tracey was there in Unova when it happened. He told me something bizarre about a friend he met there and was visiting Professor Sycamore for a favor for that friend."

"Tracey was there?!" Misty looked surprised. "And what about his friend he met there?"

"I'm just grasping at straws, but Yellow's case sounds familiar to that other guy what was his name… An… something?"

"Something happened there that was similar to Yellow's case?" Lance asked as he looked back to everyone in the room. "Ash, what happened in Nimbasa City?

"Let me call Tracey, he'll explain it better…" Ash paused on the other side of the screen as he stared hard at the buttons. "Uhh wait how do I make a three way call?"

Everyone sighed at that. (Except Gold who was holding in a laugh.)

Brock spoke up, "Hold on. Let me do it for you Ash. I just hope he's awake at this time."

A few minutes later, Tracey did pick up and was put into a three way call with his screen split to the left side in Brock's computer with Ash on the right.

"Hey guys, what's up? Oh! I completely forgot! Congratulations Brock." The assistant of Professor Oak greeted.

Brock accepted the thanks, but the situation had to go back since Tracey didn't seem to be up to speed.

"And… Ash thinks Yellow's case is similar to Anto's?" Tracey asked as he looked towards Ash's screen.

"Anto! Right that's the name!" Ash snapped his fingers.

"That's a weird name." Gold pointed out. "But you're the only one here who knows what actually happened there."

"Well no, Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire were there too. But I think I should explain how this all happened…. It all began when Professor Oak wanted an update on the artwork of the PokéDex…"

* * *

[A few hours back during Unvoa's morning…]

Anto wanted nothing more than to peacefully sleep in the Pokémon Center bedroom. He had been stopped before, ooohhhh yeess… he was stopped before by his own Pokémon. He cared for them dearly, but he swore they were somehow dead set in ruining whatever peace of mind Anto had left. So, he boldly planned to ignore whatever his Pokémon were up to this morning and work from it after he got an Arceus blessed good night's rest.

And it was working. He was a little chilly, but he finally had a good night's sleep! … Huh it really was chilly. He should probably pull up his blanket—

…

Let him feel around for that a bit.

…

Why couldn't he find his blanket anywhere?

"**As Super Nut and the Turbo Trio stood heroically on the roof top!**" The sound of someone going through a loud monologue caught the attention of the boy as he stared at the really opened window in his room.

"_Why are the mornings with a new Pokémon always the worst_?" Anto dreaded as he checked his party belt to find all of them were empty.

"**They realized the beauty of this world and swore to protect it at all costs!**" Super Nut shouted to the skies above as he stood on the roof of the Pokémon Center. People passing by were wondering why there were a bunch of Pokémon on the roof top with bed sheets on early in the morning.

"**Yo, wait. I don't gots any money; that's boss' job.**" Ohko pointed out as he stood nearby Super Nut, Sentinel and Kryx. He also wondered how Super Nut's cloak was fluttering in the air despite there being no actual wind, but he just assumed it was a skill.

The alien psychic floated around excitedly. Her use of the blanket was simply placing it over her body, making her look like a floating bed sheet ghost. "**Oooh! I know! Earthenoid Banks have lots of money! Let's just take some from there!**"

"**I can phase us all through the walls!**" The Delta Pokémon offered.

Meanwhile, just behind them, Takezo and Lily were staring at what their friends were doing. They were the only duo not dressed up as fake super heroes with blanket capes and cut out masks.

"**I was really hoping the next member of our group was going to be more… sensible.**" Lily sighed as she put a palm towards her face.

Takezo the Patrat, nodded at this. "**I would be lying if I said I did not wish for that. I can only imagine how Anto would react to this.**"

"**What no! That's a villain thing! Heroes don't steal banks; we beat up people who do steal banks!**" The Super Hero of the group corrected.

Maybe Nut wasn't as out of hand as the other members of his group.

Sentinel raised his ghost claw. "**Ooh! Ooh! How about, we trick some guys into robbing a bank then we beat them up!**"

Nut placed one of his claw hooks near his face. "**Hmm I do like beating people up…**"

"**Wow! So do we!**" Kryx, Sentinel, and Ohko admitted at the same time.

OK, maybe Nut was just on the normal side of 'out of hand'.

"_None of you are doing that!_" Their trainer mentally screamed as he climbed up to the roof.

"**Oh good morning Anto, how was your sleep?**" Takezo asked nonchalantly.

"_It was actually pretty good, but on to more important business: what are you four doing!?_" The boy's blood pressure started to rise. Poor kid, stress is so bad for his age.

"**Ah!** **Danger Damoiseau, or my trusty Sidekick, DD! Come in join the Turbo Trio and I in our morning patrol of! … What is the name of this city again?**" The Ferrothorn looked over to the other Pokémon who only shrugged their shoulders or just looked confused and unchanged in their face.

"_It's Mistralton City. Also no. I'm not joining any of you. Nut, you promised me you would tone it down after the first time you launched us into the city. I could have died from what you did!_"

"**But you didn't die and you only became stronger because of it!**" He referenced, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' and pointed dramatically at the young boy with one of his spiked disks.

"**Lucky…**" Ohko seemed disappointed. He would have crossed his arms if he had more than one of them.

"_No! Look guys, I realize there are things you want to do, but please please Please! Do not destroy other objects or other people when conducting what you want to do. I get into a lot of trouble as is!_"

"… **So… can we still patrol the city?**" Nut asked innocently.

Anto placed a hand on his forehead and sighed deeply. "_Fine, fine. But you have to promise me that no matter what, not a single thing will be destroyed or attacked while you 'patrol' the city._"

"**OK!**" The quad of Pokémon cheered while Lily sighed in the back ground with Takezo chuckling silently. Anto felt like he was just spoiling them all until he noticed something. All six of his Pokémon seemed to be starting at something behind him.

"_Hmm?_" The amber eyed boy looked back to see a Haunter floating around looking at him with a very stunned and shocked look on his face.

"_Oh err. Hi? May I… help you?_" He greeted the ghost Poison Pokémon.

"**A…A…**" The Haunter stammered to speak. That was really weird since his kind of Pokémon were usually pranksters and playful.

"**Anthony?**" The Haunter finally finished speaking but he spoke the word in utter disbelief as if he himself couldn't understand what was coming out of him.

"_E-Excuse me?_" Anthony? That name… why… why did it sound so… familiar?

"Apparition! Apparition! Where are you, ya silly ghost!? It's too early for this!" The voice of a young girl cried out.

The ghost Pokémon looked down towards the front of the Pokémon Center and floated away towards the voice.

Anto felt a strong urge to go after that Pokémon, why did it call him An…tho…ny…?

An… tho… ny…

An... to…

"_No way…_" Like a man possessed, the young trainer walked towards the edge of the roof. His other six Pokémon looked at him with worry and followed the boy carefully as he peered over the edge.

There was a young girl around the age of eight or nine with blonde hair tied in a French braid that reached the top of her shoulders wearing a black and green striped shirt with skinny jeans and sneakers. She had Caucasian skin and she had light blue eyes. The girl looked quite happy but then worried as the Haunter appeared with her with a new look on his face.

"Apparition, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost! … Whoops." The girl realized after she had said that but shook her head and looked to her Pokémon with worry.

The ghost Pokémon looked back towards Anto and his Pokémon. The girl followed suit and both hers and Anto's eyes met. Anto felt something at the back of his mind that just tickled his mind…

Now the younger girl seemed as shocked as the ghost Pokémon and gasped as she looked at Anto.

"Big Brother?"

* * *

[Present time…]

"That… did that really all happen?" Red spoke out after Tracey had finished that surreal story about a boy with the ability to speak psychically to other people yet remain mute.

Tracey nodded. "It's real. All of it."

"Oh come on, we've had weirder adventures than that! I mean, I fought Arceus and traveled through time!" Gold exclaimed. "You can't get much higher than the fighting the Creator."

"Oh please, we all know Ash is the current place holder for weird things happening to him, he's already time traveled almost a dozen times and has met Arceus in more than one occasion." Brock pointed out.

"Really? I didn't think of my adventure like that…" Ash looked surprised to hear that.

"I guess the stranger the journey, the more important the trainer then," Lance commented. "But how can we be sure if there really is a connection between the events in Nimbasa with Yellow's kidnapping? Tracey, you said that it was Dimension Enterprise that was after him and that they personally sent agents after him. Why do you think that they're one in the same?"

"It wouldn't be surprising if they tried another way to get him would it? And in terms of money, they can supply her funds to come back into the open like this."

"Interesting point, but aren't these just theories? We have no real or definite proof that Hunter J is heading towards Unova and that this Dimension Enterprise hired her. For all we know it could be a coincidence." Silver brought that topic out.

"True, but you have to remember, for people like us, there's usually no such thing as coincidences." Crystal countered, referring to all of their journeys so far.

"Besides, it's our only lead into finding Yellow. Tracey, can you get this kid on the phone?" Red impatiently asked.

"Anto doesn't have a phone… but wait. I think Wes has a PDA. Let me call him."

"Are you sure we can trust that Former Team Snagem Member?" Silver asked with a dangerous tone. "People from Teams are usually not to be trusted. What if he's actually still a Member?"

"This coming from Giovanni's son…" Gold muttered silently, but still got the attention of his rival.

Tracey exhaled. "That… would actually make things so much easier…" He laughed nervously, surprising everyone. "Unfortunately, he's clean and on our side."

"You make it sound like a bad thing." Green noticed.

"He's… unpleasant to be around, but he means well. Oh he's picking up."

The screen on the computer fit into four screens with Ash and Trace being on the top two while an empty screen appeared on the bottom right corner. Wes appeared on the bottom left corner.

"Why is there a flash mob in my screen? Are you sending me spam, Head Band?" Wes asked Tracey.

"Flash… mob?" Blue repeated in confusion as she looked around. Everyone was starting to see why Tracey was acting the way he was.

"Wes… just…. We need to talk to Anto." Tracey pressed on.

"Oh. Yeah… about that…"

"Did something happen?" Crystal asked quickly.

"Well maybe? It's hard to explain really." The Orreain boy started scratching the back of his head.

The assistant of professor Oak pressed on with his questions. He was starting to worry because the cocky teen seemed uncharacteristically nervous. "Wes, what happened to Anto?"

"I… think we found his family."

…

"You found his family?!" Tracey asked in shock.

"Maybe, I don't know for sure. It's really weird." Wes answered.

Everyone seemed confused as to why the silver haired boy would say that. Tracey asked again. "Wait what do you mean weird? If he really was lost, wouldn't his family be glad and welcome him back?"

Wes sighed. "Tracey I don't know how long it was since we last talked, but this is Anto we're talking about. Things just get stranger with him."

"Can you get to the point please?" Green spoke out quickly.

Wes paused for a second and nodded.

"Sorry, it's just that this information is just baffling. I've been doing some research and digging around after meeting someone we thought was Anto's younger sister and I found something really, really trippy. Get this: apparently 'Anto' has been dead for the past eight months."

* * *

[A few hours ago…]

Jamie yawned as she got into her clothes and made herself ready for the day. She sighed as looked into the mirror and thought about what Wes told her.

She looked down towards Sylveon. "Am I really doing the right thing? I mean… they just told me to…"

"Syl…"

"Oh right, Anto isn't around and Psychic Pokémon aren't. I almost got too used to talking to you…"

"**You make that sound like a bad thing.**" Jamie's Sylveon spoke out.

That surprised the two of them since they understood each other so suddenly. Jamie looked out the door and felt someone rushing out. She fixed her appearance better, trying to fix her shirt to hide her budding bosom before looking out the door and spotting Anto hurrying out of his room while just putting on his jacket. He looked anxious for some reason.

"Anto?" Jamie called out before following him.

She saw the boy head down towards the main lobby where there was a young girl and a Haunter looking at him with the same nervous look on their face.

"H-Hey. I'm sorry mister for anything Apparition, my Haunter here, did anything. Believe it or not he's usually well behaved."

"**Caitlin it's him! It's Anthony!**" The Ghost type pointed out to the boy and said to the girl.

The girl was surprised to hear her Pokémon's voice in her language. "Appa? You can talk?"

"**I'm actually surprised I can hear you clearly, Kate.**" The ghost and poison type answered as well.

"_Ummm…_" They both looked to Anto whose voice almost sound like it was in their mind. "_I-I'm doing this. I-I'm a psychic trainer and I have this ability to translate languages between people._"

"Wow really!? That's really cool!" The girl—Caitlin he assumed—gushed excitedly before her smile died down. "So uh… what's your name again?"

"_It's uhh A… Anto._" The boy felt his head hurt, he felt like he knew this girl, but why?

"An… to?" Both the girl and Haunter seemed shocked to hear that.

"_Is something wrong with that name?_" The boy asked quickly at the way both of them looked so shocked at him.

"I ummm well. I…"

"**That's my former friend's nickname.**" The Haunter spoke out softly.

"Apparition!?" The girl screamed at the ghost type. "I'm so sorry, but yes. You see that was the nickname of my older brother Anthony. It's just that… you… you look so much like him and you have a similar name to him."

Anto felt something bad at the pit of his stomach, something Haunter said as really hooked his attention. "_Former? W-What happened to him?_"

The two of them looked at each other and became very down cast.

"He uhh… he's dead." The girl spoke softly and dourly.

"_Wait… dead?_" The mute repeated in shock. While Jamie was off to the side and heard the entire conversation. Anthony was dead?

"Yeah… my brother died in an accident. It was pretty hard on all of us…" The girl said nervously her face started to grow from sad to angry for some reason. "What's worse, some horrible people took him away!" She shouted angrily with tears coming from her eyes as the emotions came back. "I'm sorry. I just wasn't expecting to meet someone like you…"

Caitlin spoke out and ran away.

"**I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I'll be going now…**" The Haunter described before vanishing into thing air.

"_Wait…_" Anto spoke too late as the ghost Pokémon also left.

At this moment, Jamie along with Wes and White who came in just a while back stepped out.

"_I need to go after them._" The shocked mute spoke out as he stared at where Cait ran away.

"You don't know where they even went." Wes spoke out softly.

"… _I think I do._" Anto turned to them before taking a step forward.

White quickly grabbed his hand. "Wait, Anto! Something is fishy about this!"

"_I think that's them! I know her—or I feel like I do know her!_" The boy looked desperately towards the exit.

"But Anto, she said her brother was dead… you… you can't be what you think you are." Jamie tried to reason out.

The other three saw a look of desperation and hope in the Amensiac's eyes. After hearing that this supposed boy was dead—which in itself was surprising and confusing since Anto was most definitely alive—they all felt that there was something really strange going on with this situation. And the Mute going rapidly after the girl did not look like the best of choices.

"… _I have to know for sure._" The amnesiac pushed White's hand away before making a break for it.

"We have to follow him." White looked back at the other two.

"I'm not so sure. … You guys go ahead; I need to check something." Wes spoke out before looking towards the door where Nurse Joy just entered through. The two (girls) looked on before running after the brown eyed boy.

…

He always did run, ever since he could remember (For the past few months), he was always running away from something chasing madly after him.

It kind of felt strange to be on the side of the chaser.

* * *

"You're an idiot!"

"Well you're a dummy!"

"I'm not a dummy, you're an idiot!"

"You are a dummy, and I'm not an idiot!"

"**MOM!**" The two children screamed.

* * *

His head was aching more and more, it was worse than any point in his entire journey. However, the pain was pushing him forward, running through the alleyways to hurry up to that place…

* * *

"You two need to get along!"

"He/She **started it!**"

"And now you're both stopping it! Anthony, you are the older brother, be kind to your little sister! Caitlin, show your older brother respect!"

They both stuck out their tongues to each other.

* * *

The brown haired boy found himself gasping for breath as he reached what looked to be a dead end alleyway with a long park hedge. He almost felt possessed as he walked down this closed and narrow path. The air seemed dry and it felt like the walls could close on him any second.

Still, it felt familiar to him.

* * *

"You gotta see this! It's super cool!"

"Anto, we aren't supposed to be here!"

"Just trust me, Kate, I know you'll like this place!"

* * *

Hidden in the long hedges in one particular dead end, was a small wooden door half his size. The Amnesiac's heart started to beat wildly, his mind was racing, and sweat was falling down his face. He was starting to remember wasn't he?

He turned the knob, and walked through the small door he had to duck under.

It was a beautiful garden with flowers planted to the side of a path all leading up to a giant willow tree that had many of its long vine like leaves look like curtains to hide its main trunk.

Anto walked up to the tree and parted some of its leaves. He heard a gasp as he saw Caitlin and Apparition looking shocked at him.

"Y-You?! H-How did you find me!?" Caitlin asked in shock.

For once, the mute found himself at a loss for words, not just physically but mentally. So the only thing left was to speak from his heart. He just hoped it wouldn't freak her out.

"_You told me about your brother, but do you mind if you listen to my story? It's not that long, but I think it's best if I tell you this._"

* * *

"Where did he go? We've been searching for a while!" Jamie complained as she and White have been searching for Anto for almost an hour.

"Oh hey, Jamie, look at the gym! Maybe something there might help!" White spoke out before the two made their way towards the gym in question.

However, to their surprise, the gym was closed down.

"Huh? There's a note saying that the gym is going to be closed for a while."

"Yes, I'm sorry for that young ones." The two of them looked back to see a stern but kind looking old man walking up to them with a cane. "My name is Miles. I was the previous gym leader here before my Granddaughter took over for me. My Granddaughter is off doing… gym leader business and she won't be here for a while. I honestly don't know when she'll be back but I also hope it's very soon." He sounded somewhat worried as he said 'gym leader business' though.

"Oh wait, but if the gym leader isn't here, how is Anto going to get his sixth badge?" White asked Jamie. The league was coming closer, and while he was making good pace, this could threaten his chances of making it in time.

The old man seemed surprised to hear that name. "Anto? Did you say Anto?"

"Wait, sir, you know him?" White asked.

The old man seemed contemplative before looking at the two young trainers. "Do you mind if I ask you a question first? Can you describe this boy named Anto?"

The two (girls) looked at each other before White started. "Well he's got short black and somewhat messy hair that looks just a bit spikey and he's got amber shaded eyes. He's also around our height too."

Miles seemed surprised at that for a second before his face fell. "Yes, I do know him. One of the other Gym Leaders, Clay from Driftveil, asked a favor of me. If a trainer named Anto comes here when Skyla hasn't returned, I was to give him and his friends a private ride to Virbank City and let him challenge the Gym there instead."

"Clay was here?" The girl in disguise asked with honest shock.

"Yes. Many of the Unova Gymleaders were here recently along with another trainer that liked yelling a lot and was surprisingly analytic."

"Was that Black!?" White asked in shock since he was the only one she knew those descriptions fit.

"That might have been his name yes," Miles mused to himself. "So where is this boy? I do want to meet him."

"Well he kind of ran after this girl name Caitlin—"

"Wait he knows Caitlin!? But that's impossible!" Miles suddenly screamed in shock after he heard the name. He saw the two younger people look surprised and scared from that little episode before he sighed.

"I apologize, but it's just… he sounds like a child of a friend's that recently died."

The two trainers looked at each other again, but this time with surprise. "… Was the boy's name Anthony?"

* * *

"Wait that idiot that crashed into those newsstands was you?" Caitlin asked in mirthful shock, while holding in a bunch of giggles along with her Haunter who was actually just laughing as he floated around the air.

"_Hey! I told you that I didn't do it on purpose! Super Nut was just waayyy too excited. Besides, I still feel sore from that horrible landing!_"

The girl and Haunter burst into another amazing fit of laughter.

Anto gave a deadpan look towards the girl and the ghost type before scoffing and smiling as well. There was an instinct he had at the back of his head.

After a while, the girl stopped laughing and looked hopeful towards the older boy. "Umm can I? Can I see them please?"

"_Sure, but it's going to be a bit crowded though._" Anto warned before revealing all six of his Pokémon under the tree.

The trainer with five badges introduced each and everyone one of his Pokémon to Caitlin and Apparition. They all made her laugh and they were all really sweet Pokémon.

"So is it really true? You have amnesia and only remember waking up in a Pokémon center in the main land?" The blonde girl asked.

"**Yes it was very peculiar.**" Takezo answered first. "**He fell from the sky in a strange device. It is still quite baffling what that was.**"

"**I wish I got a look at it.**" Kryx folded her arms and pouted… somehow…

"And you think Dimension Enterprise knows something about it?" The girl asked again, this time, she seemed to be very interested at this part.

"_I don't know if they really are. But there is a connection._"

Caitlin looked shocked, but she almost looked like she was just figuring something out. "But… but dad works there."

"_Dad works there!? I mean your dad works there!?_" Anto cried out in shock.

"Yeah he's one of their accountants. But if what you said was true… it's starting to strangely make sense but at the same time it really doesn't. I mean why does my father's work place steal a corpse of one of its employers and bring it back to life!? Can a shipping company even have the technology to do that?! But they are the only ones who could have the power to steal your body without anyone noticing!"

"_I-I'm sorry. I don't understand anything at all._"The boy apologized before turning to her. "_I just woke up one day with the world out to get me for some reason._"

"I'm sorry too; it's just that, from what you've told me… it's a lot to take in." She spoke out before she seemed to realize something. "Oh, my mom is probably wondering where I am by now."

"_M…Mom_?" Anto asked with a hint of curiosity. Blurry images of a brown haired woman shot across his mind. "_Can I meet her?_"

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Caitlin spoke out with hesitation.

Anto realized what he was suggesting; asking him, a kid who looked and acted suspiciously like her dead son, to meet the mother? How cruel could life be if you were to meet someone who looks exactly like a loved one who died so recently. He couldn't do that to them.

"_You're right, sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I probably am not even this Anthony person, just some confused person who hit his head way too hard to have amnesia._" The mute stood up and bowed silently to the girl and Haunter. "_Thank you for your time, and please… just forget about this._" He spoke before leaving.

All of his other Pokémon looked back at the girl, who seemed hesitant to call him back, but she said nothing and looked dejectedly towards the ground.

Just before Anto reached for the knob, she stood up and screamed, "Wait!"

"…?"

"You're going to the Unova League right?" The younger girl looked at the boy with something else on her mind.

The amnesiac slowly nodded.

"Then… please win it! Mom was a top trainer back at her day, and her dream was to win the Unova League, but she couldn't win it no matter how much she tried because there were a lot of great trainers at that time," She briefly explained for some reason that only confused the trainer as to why she was saying that. "I told my brother that I was going to win the league for her, and he told me to do my best and that he would cheer me on since he wasn't much of a trainer himself," She paused as she inhaled. "So what I'm trying to say is, since I can't do it yet, and since mom and dad have been sad ever since my big brother died… could you… win it for us? I think it would mean the world to them if they see even someone like my brother achieve what my mom couldn't…" Caitlin finished as she looked expectantly at Anto.

The brown haired boy slowly turned around. _ "You want me… to go to the Pokémon League and beat trainers who might have been training for years, have Pokémon that are potentially more powerful, better trained, more experienced, and more rare than my party; and who have also defeated the gym leaders of this region, and potentially other regions along with probably at least participating in their own Region League even though I'm just a 13 to 14 year old boy who can't even recall what he did four months ago and has luck so bad that an Absol literally tried to kill me?_"

Caitlin looked away. "I'm sorry that was really stup—"

The girl did not get to finish that sentence.

Anto was not going to let her finish that quickly he had walked back up and petted the girl on the head before caringly ruffling it up.

"Hey!" She said as she pushed away his hand with a blush and tried to fix her hair.

Anto gave a silent chuckle. "_Sure why not? I mean, after what I've been through, how can the league be any different to my life so far? … I really really hope I didn't just jinx myself when I said that._" He paled as soon as he realized what he said.

Caitlin and Apparition looked hopeful. "Y-You mean it?"

The amnesiac nodded. "_It would be easier to meet them if they approached me rather than me approaching you now. … I really do want to meet your mom and dad… see if… they really are…_" Anto paused for a second before sighing. "_Even if it isn't, maybe by helping you find your brother's body, I can find out what happened with me._"

Cait put her hands back on top of her head. "You know my brother did the same thing you did just now whenever we talk like this sometimes."

"_D-Did he now?_" Anto looked uneasy, he only did that out of instinct.

Caitlin puffed with pride. "Well mister! You better win the League, so when I grow up and start my Journey, I can beat you easily so my mom will love me the most!"

The older boy rolled his eyes with a scoff and a laugh. "_Don't count on it, squirt._"

"You're just scared, you walking bad luck charm!" She glared back at him.

The two stared at each other down before laughing at how silly each other looked. Quickly following them, all the Pokémon did the same…

But unfortunately, Caitlin and Apparation really had to go, so Anto stayed behind a bit as he and his Pokémon said their fond goodbyes to Caitlin.

The young boy smiled as she left first, leaving him and his Pokémon sitting under the large willow tree surrounded by large hedge walls.

For a few long seconds, the trainer stared at the door where the girl left.

"**Anto? Are you fairing well?**" Takezo asked carefully as all his other Pokémon looked on to him.

The brunette boy didn't seem to hear him until one more second later, he smiled and exited smile. "_Why wouldn't I be? I finally have a clue to who I am! … Anthony… that does make a lot more sense…_" He spoke out the name as if it was his own, yet it still felt so foreign to him.

"**But what if you aren't him? What if it really is a coincidence?**" Lily spoke out worryingly.

Anto didn't want to think that, but he let it in anyway. "_Well even if it wasn't, don't you think there might be a clue to who I really am?_"

"**I just don't want you to get your hopes up in case something bad happens.**" The shiny grass type explained.

Anto jumped up excitedly. "_Don't you guys see? After two months of near death and strange experiences, I finally have a solid lead on who I really was! Why are you guys so… worried?_"

"**What exactly happens, when you find your home again, Anto?**" Takezo inquired.

"_I can maybe get my life back, live normally, do whatever it was that I used to do!_"

Sentinel noticed something with that sentence. "**Wait, 'normal'? But you already said we're not normal, so what happens to us?**"

All of his Pokémon looked towards Anto expectantly and with worry. The mute realized the weight of his words and what he could have been implying: he was going to get rid of them if he found his old life back.

"_What!? No! Guys, is that what this is about? I won't ever leave you guys, I promise!_" The amnesiac told them out with wide eyes of shock. "_I just wish my life wasn't always trying to kill me!_"

"**What makes you think that being with them will make anything different?**" Ohko asked on.

That was actually a very good point, even if he had found his family now, who's to say that there still won't be people after him. "_I… Ok maybe I thought things would be different even if I did find my way back home… but please… I just want to know who I am!_"

"**You're Anto, our best friend. Isn't that enough?**" Sentinel asked plainly.

"_I… I…_" Anto looked around, unable to truly answer such a simple question.

It was as if they were asking him if he was to choose between his old life and a life with them. He couldn't make a choice. He wanted to know his past life so much, but he truly did care for this Pokémon. Why was this even coming to him? He thought he was one step closer to finding his old family, but now something like this arises that threatens his new family? He couldn't even think of a life without the other, but did that make him selfish? Because he was starting to think about himself instead of others?

Was he really selfish this whole time?

"**He will always be our best friend.**" Everyone turned towards the newcomer when Super Nut spoke out. "**I've known Danger Damoiseau for at best a day, but I know that he is a very kind, but trouble bound young sidekick in the making. He made me really see what it means to be a hero: not with powers or super costumes, but what's on the inside of us. … And if he asks for help, even if it means a chance of him going away, I'll do it, because a true hero puts others first before themselves, and in my eyes, Anto is a hero.**"

The Amnesiac blushed at the really high praise. "_H-Hero? Thank you for the kind words, Nut, but I don't know why you would call me that._"

His Pokémon started to think a bit on why he would say that. Strangely, they started to see it.

"**Anto, what was the first thing you did when you woke up from Amensia?**" Takezo asked.

"_Steal a Motorbike and accidentally almost commit manslaughter?_" Anto looked on with confusion as to why his Patrat would bring up that moment.

"**I was going to refer to the part where you told me you tried to actually help them. You actually tried to help people who wished you harm and when you battled Harold and his Pachirisu, you chose to help them because of your ability to understand both human and Pokémon. Wouldn't a hero also choose to help them in any way they could rather than hurt or ignore?**" The samurai asked.

The boy thought back. "_I… never thought of it like that._"

To his surprise, and the other Pokémon, Takezo bowed down to Anto on his knees.

"**I owe you an apology, Anto. I thought that you were so excited to see your old life again that you would abandon us when the time came. I thank Super Nut in reminding me that if anyone deserves to be selfish out of all of us, it is you.**"

"**Yeah, I was kinda thinking the same thing too. I really like being with you guys, even though you do a lot of stupid things,**" Lily the Lilligant admitted. "**But you also deserve to be happy too Anto. I guess I didn't really think about that.**"

Kryx floated upward. "**I guess it kinda was scary to think you would stop, but then again that was pretty dumb of me—a scientist— to jump to such an weak conclusion!**"

"_No you guys, you did have a point. I… was really caught up on the idea that I finally had a chance to go home that I didn't consider any of you. Even if that was my real family, I would bring all of you guys with me in a heartbeat._" The trainer tried to say he was sorry as well for being selfish.

"**Good cause I was scared Boss! I didn't want you to leave!** Ohko spoke out with relief.

Then there was Sentinel. Everyone looked over to the delta Pokémon.

"**You helped me didn't you?**" Sentinel asked. "**I really am grateful for meeting you. I'm sorry for bringing it up. The thought of you not being there anymore suddenly became scarier than everything those labcoats ever did.**"

Anto laughed, he laughed so hard that tears were starting to form near his eyes. "_Are you kidding me? I already told you, and obviously I'll say it again: we're fools too stupid to understand what 'abandonment' means. Also, I've just been thinking that no matter what, I couldn't get rid of you guys if I tried. No literally—you guys have powers, I don't. If I ever tired anything, you guys would just hunt me down and beat me up._"

Ohko pointed towards the boy with a smile. "**Hey! He's right!**"

Suddenly, everything suddenly became so hilarious, Anto and his Pokémon laughed and laughed and laughed.

It was the most laughter they all had in a very very long time.

"_Oh… oh god… we are idiots huh?_" Anto spoke out, relieved and glad this became the result of that conversation.

"**I guess that's why we all fit together so much.**" Lily chimed out happily.

At this point, they heard a very loud growling noise. Everyone turned to see that somehow Sentinel made that sound despite being an undead skeleton lacking an actual organ in the first place.

"**What? Anti hasn't given us breakfast yet.**" The poor delta rubbed his rib cage.

Anto just shook his head and sighed. "_Fine. Everyone come on, my treat. … Just don't throw another man and woman out the window._" He narrowed his eyes towards Kryx and Ohko.

"**I thought that was an earth custom to kick people out of buildings.**" Kryx innocently spoke out.

They all started to leave, but Anto slowed Super Nut down behind the rest of them. "_Thanks for your help. I really mean it._"

Super Nut smiled. "**All in a day's work for a super hero.**"

[Later…]

"So… you chose not to meet them?" Jamie said as Anto explained what had happened.

One of the many advantages of his pseudo psychic telepathy is the ability to eat and talk at the same time and not be (too) rude and gross while doing it. "_Yeah. I mean, she was right. What was I supposed to do? Meet them right then and there? Caitlin will probably convince her family to watch the league, so I'm going to win it, and have them come to me._"

"Win the league? Aren't more experienced trainers usually the one who wins those things? Like trainers who at least have been in other region League tournaments?" Wes pointed with his fork towards the boy.

"_Honestly, just add that to the list of things that seem impossible that I've actually done within my time here in Unova._" The boy drank some water before looking to White and Jamie. "_But I'm surprised. I have to be sent to a different Gym?_"

White nodded before swallowing her food. "Yeah. The gym leader here, Skyla, isn't here. She went with some other gym leaders. Her grandfather Miles offered to bring us there by ship. We're leaving in the afternoon at four and be there in less than an hour. He also explained that he was also going to bring us to the next city over after you were done with that badge."

"_I guess that means I have little time to train._" The boy mulled over.

"Anto… are you sure you're OK? I mean even if it was a long shot, you could have met with your parents." Jamie spoke out with concern.

The mute stopped for a second after swallowing his food. "_I really really did want to meet them. But it's just not the right time for them. And I met Caitlin at least. She seems pretty smart for an eight year old which, oddly enough, annoys me for some reason._" The boy thought out loud literally. "_But thanks Jamie for caring._"

"Ooh! Umm. Yeah. You're welcome." Jamie nervously responded with Wes eying her carefully.

With that, the four went on with their late brunch… or linner—or is it lunner?

[Meanwhile…]

"Now everyone, please leave the boat since this will be the last stop. We are now arriving in Asperita City. Thank you for using Dimension Transports for your ride." A loudspeaker electronically recited as the ferry docked near the simple city.

A tall teen with black hair and a furry blue scarf stepped off the boat along with its passengers. While Unova was under a lockdown, it was mostly its main islands. The corner coast, like Asperita City and Virbank City were still open for travels and you can get into the main land through here.

That was the plan told to him by Lysandre. He would catch a ride to Unova somewhere either here or Virbank City then find this boy. That boy was tied in with the trainers who could use six mega evolutions at the same time! How could someone come up with such technology and understanding!? The boy was the key to all of this, and to protect professor Sycamore's work, he would hunt this kid down if he knew anything that threatened the good professor's work.

[Elsewhere]

"UGH! I can't believe that brat! I am going to make him pay for humiliating us like that! He's so lucky that our boss wanted him alive or else I'd!" Cassidy fumed with rage as she and Butch were planning their next attempt at capturing the target boy. However, they were caught off guard by how resourceful and strangely powerful his bizarre cast of Pokémon were.

Believe it or not, the two were at a hotel room at Driftviel City. After being launched some miles away by the mute trainer, the duo came rushing back to find that the boy had gone to the next city over.

Now the two were getting ready to go after him.

Butch calmly walked up to the microwave to heat up some frozen pizza until he heard ringing. He looked towards the service phone before he realized where the ringing was really coming from.

"Hey uhh, Cassidy, it's the work phone." The green haired team rocket member spoke out, catching the blonde woman out of her rage for whining. The woman and the man looked around, closed the window curtains and made sure the doors were locked and no cameras were watching them .

They then looked towards their duffle bag before Butch fished out a small circular object with the Team Rocket logo and placed it on the table. It was vibrating and ringing like a normal phone but it obviously wasn't one. Cassidy pressed a button on it and out of the object a holoscreen appeared with a familiar woman.

"This is Agent Domino. Agents Botch and Cassidy, how goes the capture?"

The two saluted as they gave their report. Butch, who was slightly peeved at the return of his name being forgotten, answered the higher up. "Agent Butch reporting in! Unfortunately we were unable to capture the target. He proved to be more cunning than we first thought. We're working on our secondary attempt to capture him this instant."

"I see. Well, we've received some new information in regards to who this mysterious and powerful group is. However, we do not know why they would be after this target. Did he show anything worth of notice?"

"We think he's a psychic trainer. He never communicated through voice, only telepathy like a psychic type Pokémon." Cassidy spoke up. "Other than that, he had strange Pokémon with him."

"Very well fill me in on the details when I arrive in your position."

The two agents blinked. "Wait. When you arrive?" Cassidy repeated.

"Our glorious leader has sent me to spearhead this mission. I will personally take control of this team when I arrive in an hour, brief me with every detail of your encounter with the boy. Do I make myself clear?"

The two agents stood up straighter than they could. "Yes Agent!"

"Good. We will continue our pursuit of the target forthwith as soon as I'm there."

**{Author Notes}**

**Uh oh, looks like round two for Hunting Anto is on! And the new Challenger is Alain, of Pokémon XY! Can our misfit hero battle against a master of Mega Evolution? Also, it looks like Agent Domino, Team Rocket's personal Jame's Bond is also in the mix. Or is there another mysterious party on the move? How's Anto going to get out of these mix? (Thanks for MangoLimePie for the suggestion)**

**Also, it's seems Super Nut might be a lot more selfless than he lets on. Even if he thought the cape gave him power, he still embodied the idea of being a hero. **

**We also find out that most of the gymleaders are gone, so Anto has to be sent to Virbank City! Why?! (If you've read the Black and White Pokémon Adventure Manga, you know why Skyla wasn't there.)**

**And pum pa da da da~! We get a surprise cameo from some of the main character from the Manga and Anime! It seems they are closing in on Hunter J's trail… who's closing in on Anto's Trail… who's being trailed by Team Rocket, Team Flare, Dimension Enterprise, and some mysterious group of people… **

**Holy crap there's so many people after the poor kid!**

**We finally get to see a glimpse into who Anto could really be, and he gains more of a reason to join into the Pokémon League and win it! I really did plan to have them meet, but then I thought about it, and decided it wouldn't be right to those poor parents if I did make them meet under those conditions. So Anto will try again after the league.**

**But wait what? A boy that looks exactly like Anto has died some time back? What's going on? Just who is he? What did Dimension Enterprise do to him?**

{Non Canon Extra: The Celestial Tower}

Anto was going to Challenge the Mistralton City Gym! But Skyla wanted to see something of the challenger, so she had him scale all the way towards the tall and skyscraper like building known as The Celestial Tower.

On his way up, (he was already starting to get out of breath walking up) Kryx, Ohko, and Sentinel wanted to check the place out. Their trainer let them, but told them he would be back for them soon.

After (finally) reaching the top (and gasping for breath) Anto saw Skyla waiting near a large bell.

Skyla: Great! You're here! Ring this Bell for me please! They say that the character of the person is revealed through the sound of the ringing!

The mute nodded as he made his way towards the Bell.

Meanwhile, down below…

The Trio Anto left to play around are walking around the tower and come across a very interesting pillar.

Ohko: So what are we looking for?

Kryx: My ectoplasmic scans are off the chart! With this much bionic chemical VK, I'll be rich! … With Knowledge! Alright you guys, let's start digging near these rocks that have earth text written on them that I cannot read!

A Lampent appears in front of the trio.

Lampent: Hey you can't—

Ohko, Sentinel, and Kryx: AAHH! A GHOST!

The three fools (And one who actually is a ghost) panic and attack everything in sight in fear of the super natural.

Back with Anto…

Anto was just under the bell, but he didn't notice the cracks coming from under him.

He pulled the rope hard, and at the same time to floor collapsed under him and the bell started falling through the floor.

Skyla acts fast and dives in after the boy before calling her Swanna to fly them both out as the bell falls through the floor and makes a horrible cracking noise… then falls through the next floor.

Then the next one.

Then the next one.

You start to see where this is going.

Everyone escapes from the collapsing Celestial Tower and Anto gets a view of people and Pokémon running away as the sacred tower slash graveyard falls and collapses on itself because of the heavy bell ringing each time it crashes through the floor.

The Tower collapses and falls, but thankfully no one is hurt.

Kryx teleports in with Ohko and Sentinel right next to Anto.

Kryx: Oh hey Anto! You'll never guess what we did!

Anto stares incredulously at his three smiling Pokémon before slowly turning his head to the horribly stunned and shocked Skyla.

Anto: So… uh… what does the bell say about me?

Skyla does not respond though it is more likely she is incapable of responding.

Skyla: The most sacred Graveyard in Unova…

She gasps as she just stares at the giant dust cloud rising to the sky.

Anto: I'm… not getting that gym badge, am I?

Skyla: My grandma was buried there…

Anto: *Rubs the back of his head* Well if it is any constellation, I was also buried there… I think? It's hard to say.

Skyla: My Grandfather was spending 10 percent of his savings to keep a spot free next to Grandma's…

Anto: OK! *Claps hands together* Kryx, get me back to the Pokémon Center. I think Virbank City has a gym.

She teleports him back to the Pokémon center just as Skyla gets over her initial shock and rage like no other over comes her.

Anto: And that is why I've been chased by the Mistralton City Gym Leader ever since.

Wes: Dude, she's right behind you.

Skyla: YOUR BLOOD SHALL SATE THE LUSTING DEMONS IN MY SOUL!

**{Author Notes}**

**And that is the real reason why Anto is heading to Virbank and not getting the Mistralton badge. (Joke)**

**Thanks for reading.**


	34. Ep 34: Under The Cherry Blossoms

Episode 34: A flower that wilts is still beautiful.

* * *

[Previously…]

"I'm sorry—wait no I'm not—but what the…!? Did you just say that 'Anto' has been dead for the past eight months!?" Gold screamed out what everyone else was too shocked to process.

Wes nodded from his side of the screen and looked to something on the side like a different tab or a computer nearby him while everyone suddenly became shocked at the revelation. "I checked the public records, looked up some nearby schools sites, 'Anthony Baker, freshman, age 14 tragically dies in a accident. Honoring the student that made the stage come to life'." Wes read out loud. "There was even a news paper article about him. He was well known throughout his community for his lively school plays."

"Are they really the same person?" Green Oak asked with interest.

"Hey, I was just as curious as you, which is kinda why I did so much research about this Anthony Baker—which is a really mundane name if you think about it. Anywho, I briefly said stage right? Some of his friends posted a video of him in a High School Drama club in Mistralton City playing as some evil emperor for practice. It was the last video of him alive, and I compared them to Anto… he looks exactly the same and his real voice? It sounds a lot like his telepathic voice."

Wes sighed heavily. "Now here comes the even stranger part."

"You've got to be kidding me, there's more?" Blue shockingly asked.

Red sighed and put a palm to his starting-to-ache head. "Of course there's more."

"His body was reported to be stolen after three weeks since his funeral." Everyone looked at Wes as if he just willingly dropped a baby to the ground.

A few seconds past before one of them spoke up again from another strange turn in this case. "OK, now I have to admit: THAT IS WEIRD." Gold spoke out as they quickly descended down the rabbit hole.

"Anthony's dead body was stolen?" Lance repeated again for confirmation.

The Snagger nodded towards the Kanto Champion. "Yeah, there was a huge empty hole where his coffin used to be and police have been stumped on finding either the body or the thieves."

"Who would think to look for the dead among the living?" Silver muttered out loud, as if quoting an old wise saying.

They all looked at the red head strangely.

"That reminded me of something," The blue coated teenager talked towards Tracey. "Head Band, you were the first to meet him right?"

"Yeah?" Tracey blinked at the mention to him.

"Didn't he tell you that he was apparently near death before this all started and someone saved his life?"

"Anto did say something like that, why?"

"What exactly is the chance he was already dead long before we even met him? What if Anto really is Anthony Baker?"

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Brock asked with a bad feeling rising in his stomach.

"Resurrection: the ability to revive the dead," Wes bluntly spoke out. "Do you remember that Anto told us they called him Subject 5? Does that mean that Dimension Enterprise is literally finding a way to revive the dead?"

"That's… that's insane!" Ash finally spoke out first among the shocked group.

"This got dark really really fast." Misty agreed.

Time Travel and life threatening situations were one thing. But defying the balance of life and death and playing with forces beyond human comprehension? That never bodes well especially since Kalos' legend describes thousands of lives were killed in order to bring back just one life.

"Wait we still don't know if Anto and Anthony are connected! What about confirming a blood test?" Silver looked towards the silver haired boy.

Tracey spoke out for him. "Actually, the police already matched his thumbprint when Anto first got arrested. They couldn't find a match, so they assumed he must have come from a remote town or village. You have to remember not everyone get's their blood sampled since some small villages don't have technology like that." The assistant of professor Oak explained.

He was right, technically speaking, Wes, Blue, and Silver never had proper existing documents until recently. While paper trails did help, not everyone had them.

"And if you want me to look up medical records, I can't go any farther than public records since I have like no jurisdiction… at all." Wes folded his arms.

"I'll try to look that up then. It's not Kanto or Johto, but I might be able to pull some strings to get those files." Lance looked towards Ash. "Ash there's a favor I want to ask. You and Tracey should look up the Kalos Legends Xerneas and Yvetal. They might have something to do with this if resurrection is involved."

The two agreed before starting to sign out though since this was Ash they were talking about most people knew to trust Tracey more with the research since Ash had a one track mind. With them gone, Wes signed off as well, but was told to keep an eye out for Hunter J—but the sharper people of the group noticed an unusual change in the Orre boy's demeanor as soon as that name was said.

"Lance, wait." Red spoke out to the current Champion. "Think you can use your diplomatic immunity for something else?"

[Back in the Present]

Teacher?

Did you misplace your slippers?

Teacher?

Did you forget where you placed your bokken?

Teacher?

The bonsai you were taking care of… why did you neglect it?

Teacher?

Why are you no longer practicing bushido with me?

Teacher?

What do you mean, "When my time comes…"?

Teacher?

Why are you so sad but hopeful as we have this bitter conversation?

Teacher?

I do not like this.

Teacher?

Why are you looking at me like that as if you have never seen me before?

Teacher?

Why is the dojo burning down? Why are you not getting up? Why are you just… sitting there?

Teacher…

Why were those your last words to me?

"_Takezo?_"

The small Patrat snapped his eyes open before zooming in on Anto. The plain looking boy looked carefully at his friend since he seemed distant for some reason. "_Are you alright?_"

"**I was simply meditating. It helps gather my thoughts.**" The samurai spoke out calmly as he stood back up from the floor of the Virbank City Gym. "**Where are the others?**"

"_Wow you must have been pretty deep in meditation._" The young boy commented before getting off his knee and standing up. "_I was just finished talking with the others. Today is just for training while everyone else splits off and does what they want. White is visiting Poké Star Studios to help out the BW company, Wes is probably picking off people for the fun of it, and Jamie said he'll be meeting someone here. Miles is hanging around the air port because of the whole lock down politics and technicalities, so it's just us the whole day. … You really didn't notice?_" The boy asked his usually sharp and competent Pokémon member.

"**While I do admit that doesn't seem likely, I don't always pay attention to everything.**" The small samurai explained calmly.

The young boy paused as he took in the words. Something just didn't sit right with him. "_Takezo… do you remember our battle with Clay?_"

"**He was a skilled opponent.**" Takezo glanced towards the window.

"_Takezo, you kind of let your guard down when Clay's Excadrill started shouting about never giving up. I didn't want to ask out of respect, but you've been… recently sluggish. Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?_"

The small normal type was momentarily silent at the point his trainer made. "**I'm fine, I was just distracted.**" The samurai dismissed while looking at the floor.

"_Oh, ok..._"

"…" Takezo said nothing more as Anto walked towards the exit and he trailed closely behind him.

Teacher, will I lose someone else?

Anto turned around towards Takezo as he got Ohko's Great Ball out. "_So I had this idea—_"

"HELLO!"

"_AAAA!?_" Anto mentally screamed in shock as some boy randomly appeared right in front of him. The boy was obviously special. He had fiery and wild red and orange and a get up that was just a black and white spiked trousers while he was carrying a bag off sticks behind him. Another really noticeable thing about him was the fact he had a necklace of Poké Balls he was wearing that looked somewhat familiar to the amnesiac.

"You've got a great essence to you! I could smell it even from the next town over! Battle me right now!" The kid jumped back, picking a ball from his necklace and jumping some distance back.

"_W-Who are you?_" Anto spoke out as he starred at the new strange person who was suddenly demanding a battle with him.

The fiery boy blinked for a second before he palmed his head. "Oh right silly me! My name is Benga and I challenge you to a battle! Go Garchomp!" He quickly spoke before throwing his ball out.

"**And what glorious battle awaits me, Ferland the Great this day!?**" The Shiny Garchomp roared mightily as he appeared in front of Takezo and Anto. "**Oh hi!**" He took out his claw and gave a friendly wave.

"_W-whoa! Benga! Benga right? Shouldn't we fight in a place that isn't heavily crowded?_"

The fiery teen looked around were many people were staring at them.

The kid visibly slackened at the realization and smiled as he placed a hand behind his head. "Oh yeah! My bad! Here, come on Ferland, let's bring our new friends to our training zone!"

"**And it shall be done, sir Benga! Excelsior!**" The Garchomp cried out before running along with the passionate kid in a random direction.

Anto and Takezo shared a uneasy look. "_Well… I haven't been challenged to a Pokémon battle in a while?_"The amnesiac offered before walking after him.

"**I wonder… there was something off about him…**" Takezo briefly muttered.

[Elsewhere]

She looked at the picture of the boy with everyone in Nimbasa City, his plain messy black hair, unremarkable brown eyes. Ironically, in a crowd of outstanding and important looking people, he stood out for being the most out of place out of all the trainers and coordinators for being so darn plain looking.

"So you took this picture before everyone split their ways from Nimbasa?" Her voice was cold despite how she looked. It wasn't a patient voice.

"It was Sebastian's idea; he thought it was kind of a shame to let it all end on a bad note and so we all agreed for a group picture." She was nervous. No matter how many times she met with them, she would never get used to the sense of wrongness her mind kept screaming at her whenever she looked at them. Her skin felt cold, her goosebumps rose no matter how hot she felt and she always found herself sweating in one of their presence.

She glanced at her with those piercing amethyst eyes that made the other girl quiet down. "Why haven't you been contacting us?"

"I umm… I…"

"**Do not be so cold to our new underling, Sierra. I'm sure she's doing her very best.**" A tender voice spoke out, but not towards the underling, but towards the strict female.

"A me-aat der Dea nul duo a'xe plrix. (Dea, do not coddle me. I am not in the mood for this.)" She spoke out in a strange dialect.

"**Bayadula due maey faviotno vu?** (**I just don't want you unleashing your power unnecessarily, alright?**)" Her Pokémon gently soothed.

"… Fine. Can you… please… tell me why you haven't kept contact with me or Joren this past month?"

"O-One of An—the Host's friend's is keeping an eye on me. It's kind of harder to find the right time…"

"Then kill him."

"W-what?!"

"Kill him, make it look like an accident, poison his drink or food, just make sure that the host isn't nearby."

"H-how can you say that so easily?!"

The woman in charge turned back her glare. "Oh right… I forgot how you False Fragments are… does he know who you really are or who you work for?"

"N-No. No one does."

"Then just make sure to bring the host towards the Dragon Spire. It's almost time…"

"Wh-what about my—"

"We will keep our end of the bargain. Good luck!" She turned around before stopping. "Oh wait! How could I forget? I might send some people your way to help make sure he gets to the tower."

"Help?"

"Oh don't worry, Jamie. I think you'll know them…"

[Back with Anto]

"Come on! I can't wait to see your strength!" Benga proclaimed as he and Ferland stood in front of an empty grass field.

Anto looked down towards Takezo. "_Ready?_"

Takezo nodded before jumping out and unsheathing two wooden blades.

"Your Pokémon has fierce eyes! Ferland, Dragon Rush!" Benga commanded as Ferland the Garchomp bust into a blue flame and charged at Takezo with amazing speed.

"_Detect!_" The amnesiac called out as his tiny normal type barely ducked away with glowing eyes, but Ferland suddenly jumped as soon as Takezo got out of his ramming path. The Shiny Garchomp spun his body mid air, making him face towards Takezo before landing on one leg—and pushing it right towards him. The Patrat jumped away again from the path, but once more Garchomp jumped and repeated the process to chase after the normal type.

If defense wouldn't work, Anto was going on the offensive. "_Charge right for him! Umbra Shred!_"

Takezo received more information and understood what he was doing, before charging right for Garchomp.

Benga smiled. "Stop and use Fire Blast!"

Anto reacted instantly as Ferland froze to a stop quickly inhaled all dragon aura into his mouth and impressively started to change the energy of the attack in mere seconds. Takezo sped off faster as Ferland raised his hand and quickly snapped it back towards him.

The small Samurai slid under Garhomp's legs as the dragon and ground type unleashed the destructive fire type move into the area behind him. Takezo stopped his slide right between both of Ferland's knees.

"_Strike the back of the knees!_"

"Jump into the air!"

Takezo struck quickly in a large arc but Ferland was able to jump off into the air barely missing the strike towards his joints.

The dragon ground type landed some feet away near the flames from his fire blast attack. "**Slippery little fellow aren't ya? I can already tell this one's going to be different.**" He spoke with inquisitiveness while readying himself.

However, while the two Pokémon were staring each other down, Anto seemingly was the only one who noticed something. "_Uh Benga?_"

"Ferland, Dragon Claw!"

"_Benga Wait!_"

The fiery trainer looked back to the mute but Garchomp set his claw ablaze with Dragonic Energy and madly charged towards Takezo. Since the Normal type was so many times smaller, Ferland huddled low and positioned his right claw to recline back before unleashing it in an uppercut motion from the ground up, leaving a trail and rend of destructive power. Takezo rolled out of the way again, igniting his small wooden blade in dark energy before jumping right for the dragon type. Ferland's smile continued on and he parried the Umbra Shred attack with one of his imbued Dragon Claws. The two opposing energies clashed before Takezo was repelled back due to the overwhelming strength of Ferland. However, while flying mid air, Takezo regained his balance and landed in a slide as he came back to the ground. As he came to a stop, he performed a spin with his blade along with ghostly appearances of swords to signify he was using a Swords Dance. As soon as the blades faded, he ignited his Umbra Shred, showing it to be longer in reach and far more noticeable in power and energy. Ferland felt his blood boil in excitement at the technique of his unique opponent and was eager to rush in to face him once more—

"_Benga!_" Anto focused his telepathy louder towards the passionate boy with more worry in his tone, forcing both he and his Dragon Pokémon to look towards him.

"What?"

Anto, with a surprised horrified expression that said to him, did you really not notice this!?; pointed to the large wild fire that was starting to spread on the grass due to Garchomp's earlier Fire Blast attack.

"Oh./**Oh.**" Both Trainer and Dragon type realized that as the flames were actually getting bigger.

"_Help me put this out!_" Anto spoke before reaching for his Premier Ball.

Benga ran up to him with Ferland not too far behind. "Wait no! I got this! I got this! I can't believe I did it again! Grampa is going to be ticked!"

Meanwhile, Takezo let down his blade as he sighed. Ferland was very powerful, and while he might have had the speed to keep up, he lacked the power to really pierce through the defenses of the land shark, which is why Takezo was grateful Anto was there already planning perfect forms of attack for him. However, his hands were shaking form that one clash already because of such power. The back of his mind told him that if not for his trainer that battle would have been far more one sided against him.

_Do you know how to be strong, Little One?_

The samurai looked at the flames that Anto and Benga were starting to put out. He seemed to tune out what the two boys were arguing and focused back on the wild streaks of orange and red. Despite the two starting to put out the fire, Takezo stared into it deeply…

_Who-who are you?_

"_Takezo._"

The normal type blinked with both of his vivid, hypnotic eyes before looking back towards his Trainer.

Anto kneeled towards his friend. "_That's the second time you've zoned off today. Are you sure you're alright?_"

—_The smoke was burning his small lungs, but he couldn't find him near any of the exits. After the most agonizing two minutes of his life, he found him there, staring at the fire and strangely just letting it come closer and closer_—_It's going to be alright, OK?—_

"**I'm fine. I just have been deep in thought lately.**" He sheathed his wooden blade back to Valerie's designed white scabbard he still kept all the way back from Nimbasa City. "**I seem to lack any hard hitting abilities. While strength is not my forte, there probably should be something besides Swords Dance to help me out with that.**"

Anto paused for a second before going along and agreeing with Takezo. "_I never really bothered with the power department since_ _your speed and reflexes seem to cover it, but you are probably right, I might need everyone to cover more of their bases if I seriously want to win the league._"

"You're taking on the league?" Benga came up with his hands casually behind his head.

"_Yeah. I want to win it also for a… friend._" The mute worded carefully.

"I wish I could have joined the league, but I promise my Grandfather that I wouldn't until I get my training complete. Unfortunately I've got like three years left? Is it three years Ferland?"

"**I could have sworn he said two.**" Ferland pondered looked down.

"No, I thought he said—"

"_Sorry, Sorry. Stop for a second_," Anto waved his hand out_. _"_I just noticed. Benga, can you talk with Ferland? And now that I think of it, you don't actually seem that surprised that I've been using telepathy to communicate._"

Benga's answer was rather laidback, but the information he gave out wasn't. He surprised Anto by at first scoffing light heartedly and off handedly mentioning that he's seen telepathy before then revealing a very familiar golden necklace he had under his shirt.

"_Whoa! Isn't that the Ring around Arceus?_" Anto cooed as he looked at the golden gleaming necklace.

The fiery teen blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. My mom was part of an old group of nomads that worshiped Arceus. According to grampa, you and I have no idea how amazing the stories were for my dad to get her to marry him. One of the deals, in a sense was to have me be a part of their followers as well, but it's actually pretty cool. I am, in a non super religious explanation, blessed with some of Arceus' power."

"_Wait, are you telling me you basically get powers from joining your religion?_"

"Yep!"

The Cosmos are really not holding back any punches when it comes to bizarre things being attracted towards Anto, does it? A religious cult that promises to give its followers superpowers? And they don't at all sound evil?

"_Umm wow. I've never heard of that before._"

Benga laughed. "Yeah, I figure most people might get uncomfortable with the mention of anything with Religious background. But even though you actually believe me despite me telling you I have powers, I'm gonna show ya proof I'm telling the truth anyway." The teen looked over towards the burnt patch of grass and raised his palm towards the burned area. A strange see through wave came out of his palm and washed over the burned ground, restoring the grass back to green.

Anto and Takezo stared with shock.

"Yep it's pretty cool. It's not as well known as Aura Guardians or even as uncommon as Psychic Trainers, but it kinda goes to show there's more in the world than just those guys." Benga showed off. "Another cool power is empathy. It allows me to sense emotions," He looked a little sadder as he looked back at both Anto and Takezo. "You two are amazing, but I sense you both are holding something back from each other."

Takezo blinked. "**Both?**" He was surprised; Anto was hiding something?

Anto looked panicked towards the normal type and rubbed the back of his head. "_I-It's complicated._"

"If you two want a chance of even winning, you can't do that without being in synch and fully trusting yourself and your partner." Benga finished before smiling. "You two seem like good enough people, so I'm sure you can just talk it out. In the mean time, I'm here to visit my friend Roxie! She said she was preparing for a Special Pokémon fight and needed my help!"

With that, the energetic boy and his Garchomp ran off back towards Virbank City, leaving the two other in awkward silence.

It took a while, but Anto finally asked if they could start making their way back towards the Pokémon Center.

"**Anto, why didn't you tell me something was going on?**" The small Samurai asked as they began their walk.

He looked away with a flush. "_I-I didn't want you to worry._"

Of course I worry for you! What is the matter? Takezo was about to ask until he recalled earlier this morning when the memories of that other person started flowing back up.

At this moment, the wind started blowing. The two of them shielded their eyes to prevent dust from flying in, but as it died down they stared to notice something pale pink and white. To their realization, they started to notice pink and white petals on the ground. They followed it a bit, and noticed a small batch of pink trees along the path that they did not notice on their way towards the battlefield Benga chose for them.

"_Whoa! I know what these things are!_"

"**Cherry Blossoms… how odd I don't recall them blooming around this time of the year, but I have not seen one since…**"

_That is because… even I don't know! Bwahahaha!_

Takezo looked at his blade. "**They all seem to be in bloom as well. Did you know? That Cherry Blossoms usually bloom for a couple of days within a span of two weeks? A fairly short period, but it is always so beautiful.**"

Anto looked down with interest. "_How do you know all of that?_"

A small flower fell down and floated gently towards Takezo. The small samurai held his hand out as the soft flower landed gently into his small palm. A myriad of happy memoires came up to him, memories he had been trying to suppress.

_Little One, this is good bye. Thank you for being with this lonely old man._

Takezo let go of the flower, dropping it and letting it gently be carried by another gust of wind as it flew into the sky. "**I learned it from my Teacher. The man who raised me when I was born and the person to teach me sword play. He never revealed to me his true name, and I never bothered asking, but I lived with him for fourteen years of my life in the way of bushido.**"

"_You had a teacher?_" Anto looked on with shock.

"**I never told you, have I? Then allow me to tell you everything about him…**" Takezo started talking about a story of a different time, a time when he was born in the arms of gentle but firm arms of an old man with a lovely smile. He spoke of the days where he would learn to pick up a blade and the seconds that would go by repeating the same motions over and over again. He regaled the times they would spend near the outside of his little garden where a giant cherry blossom loomed. They would spend hours and hours talking. They did not understand each other directly, but they could feel each other, they had grown to care deeply between Student and Teacher. They talked on for hours, sometimes of the most pointless things in the world and sometimes the most wonderful things—at times they were the same exact thing.

They didn't understand each other, but a language barrier did not stop them from smiling, laughing, and lazily sleeping under the tree on summer days.

Anto found himself and Takezo were now under one of these Cherry Blossoms, listening with attentiveness as the samurai spoke of the time while under one of these trees, his master was being lazy and sleeping under it. Several petals fell into his snoring mouth and he woke up almost chocking up on them.

A piece of envy was rising on the Amnesiac. Takezo had so fondly recalled his memory and here he was telling him of the wonderful past he had. Yet he did his best to crush it; he was not going to be cruel as Takezo spilled his life story.

However, things took a turn for the worse ad Takezo's tale grew darker. His master was old and lonely. As time went by, his master found it harder to move and do things that he used to. At times he became increasingly forgetful and airheaded. One day, he was called to have… his final talk with his teacher.

Takezo inhaled deeply before telling Anto he was ready to tell him. His Teacher had something called Alzheimer's Disease. Anto knew what that was, Takezo didn't. His teacher told him that he was basically dying and that he lived alone not to bother his family. Yet, it was slower than most cases thanks to the training he had been doing. However, time eventually catches up one way or another. He felt his time coming soon, and with the last of his memory and sanity still placed together, he told Takezo not to be afraid and to continue his training without him.

Takezo was still worried. He truly didn't understand what was going on, and it only got worse after that. His teacher forgot more and more each passing day, until one day, he had accidentally started a fire. Takezo tried to convince him to leave, but his teacher didn't even recognize him, didn't even understand him. Years of speaking to each other, suddenly all gone in a moment.

Anto stared on with empathy towards his Pokémon. To watch someone slowly lose themselves… it must have been painful for the Samurai.

"**You once asked me why Clay's Excadrill's words bothered me? It was because in the fire, I tried to get him out, but he couldn't move. The fire and smoke was becoming worse and worse, but he still wouldn't move. I had tried to get him to move, but he wouldn't. As… as the fire got worse… and worse… I got scared and I—… ran away. I-I left him in there when I was just scared. I gave up in trying to save him.**" He spoke with great trouble in trying to utter the words from his dark memory.

"_That is not true! If you stayed there any longer, you would have died also!_" Anto mentally screamed out quickly with care.

Takezo paused for a second, gathering the look on Anto's face before he started laughed lightly. "**I suppose you are right, still I wonder what would have happened if I never gave up? Perhaps if I tried just a little harder, I could have gotten through to him and saved us both. One can only guess what type of lives we could have had if only we had done something differently.**"

The Samurai went on explaining that after his Master's death, he was listless, lost. He had no idea what to do until a pack of Patrats took him in when he had collapsed in hunger. The leader of the pack, a Watchog was rather cruel and demanded submission and compensation for helping him. Takezo refused and the two fought. Takezo was losing until he used Cut on a nearby tree, cutting it to a point where he could form another Bokken of his own. With the wooden sword he won, but he disliked how wild Pokémon lived in comparison to with his teacher, so he left to practice his blade and wander around. This explained to Anto why Takezo was so against Lenora's Watchog a long time back.

Eventually, one night, Takezo saw a shooting star… and the rest was history.

"_Wow._" The mute spoke out finally hearing the story of his normal type.

"**It is the story of my life. For so long, I was never truly comfortable with the fact Teacher had died. I tried meditating, but all I could do was suppress all my memories from overflowing me. But then I met you. I wanted to have another relationship with you as I did with my teacher, but a small piece of me was reluctant: what if you died just like my teacher? I couldn't handle losing another friend like that—not trying hard enough.**"

"_Are you kidding me? Takezo, if it wasn't for you, I would have never been here in the first place! I'm sorry about your teacher, he seemed like a wonderful man, and I can't promise that I won't die like that since I have no idea what is in store for the future. But didn't you notice? Your teacher told you goodbye. He cared for you enough to gather what was left of him to say goodbye to you. It would hurt, but he knew you would be better off with some last words than none at all._"

Takezo looked up with a smile. "**Strange, I can't seem to refute that notion nor do I want to.**" He sighed deeply in and deeply out. "**It just took me a long time I suppose. To let it go and accept my Teacher's death.**"

Anto saw at the look of peace on Takezo's face. He inhaled, gathering courage from what his Pokémon did and spoke out. "_I've been worried about what happened in Mistralton City._"

"**Your family?**"

The mute shook his head. "_No, I had a nightmare last night. It wasn't like… it was horrible. I saw my dead body walking among everyone else and they were all dead. I was speaking like a distorted demon saying Subject 5 over and over while devouring all of you guys… it just hit me. What if I really am a dead man? What if I really was this Anthony? I thought that being back in my past would be great, but then I realize what can I really do? Go back to living as if thing never really happened? What if whatever they did to me… just… turns me into a monster? Takezo, I'm scared._"

The two stayed silent as they both stared into the ground with flower petals.

"**I do not know what could have happened if I did something differently from the past, nor can I say I know what lies tomorrow. However, I do know what I can do now: Anto, it is alright to be scared, but do not let it grip your heart. I… and all the other will do our best to protect you. We owe you our friendship and you have not let us down because of it. I know that we will make it out alright in the end.**"

"_How?_"

He expected a life changing reason, a deep hidden meaning to come from the mysterious and noble little normal type since he said such iron and convincing words.

The Patrat looked back at Anto with an unreadable face and spoke out.

"**No idea. I'm just saying things in hopes that you would feel better. My teacher was very proficient in the art of making things sound like wise sayings when they were not.**" Takezo then gave an honest smile and pure smile.

…

…

Ha…

"_BWAAHAHAHAAA!_"

Anto and Takezo broke out in boisterous laughter. What could they do exactly? They really did have no idea what they were doing, and what kind of situation they were in.

They really didn't know a single thing. They probably had forces and mysteries barreling down hard on them from all sides of the world. Yet here they were, laughing at the sheer honest confusion of it all.

Unfortunately, Anto accidentally swallowed a cherry blossom petal with his laughing and started choking. Takezo laughed even louder with tears coming out of his eyes until the same thing happened to him, prompting Anto to laugh hard and point to his Pokémon and accidentally almost swallow another petal and somewhat repeating the cycle a few more times.

Those silly dorky little idiots…

"_W-We've got to stop that!_" Anto calmed down as both he and Takezo walked out of the tree to prevent themselves from potentially dying by laughing under a tree—the silliest way to die ever.

The small normal type dusted off some petals. "**You know this reminds me of something; one of my teacher's sayings: under the Cherry Blossom, a young boy is more likely to meet a beautiful girl like in those shows we watch.**"

Anto rolled his eyes and fought the urge to face palm. "_And I thought it would be something profound! Wait a sec! He's the reason why you make those comments!?_" The mute cried out.

"**You have no proof of validation for that accusation.**"

"_I call B—…S…_?" Anto trailed off as something caught his attention.

Takezo raised his brow before turning towards what his trainer was looking at. Then the Patrat smirked.

Standing in front of them was a beautiful girl around Anto's age with long, straight black hair reaching her below her shoulders with light amethyst eyes and tanned skin. She was wearing a white beret on the top of her head with a long sleeve white shirt with red accents and checkered red skirt with black thins stripes across while wearing black stockings and white rubber shoes with pink accents.

As if on cue from some producer up on high, the wind blew, making flowers and petals trial along with the scenery and making her ebony black hair sway in the wind. She looked something straight from one of those movies.

"Um hi? Sorry to bother you, but could you point me towards the Pokémon Center?" She said with a blush that made her look cute as she looked down towards her feet in shyness. "I umm kinda lost and I well to be back before my sister gets worried."

Anto stared at her a bit before slowly and inattentively moving his hand and pointing towards where the Pokémon Center was.

"Thanks! S-Sorry for bothering you!" She spoke out before walking away quickly. The schoked mute was still staring at her.

Takezo noticed something from the girl. She seemed flustered as Anto was whenever meeting new someone of the opposite gender. The normal type looked over to Anto, who still looked stunned and scoffed. "**You should consider her a mate.**"

"_Sh-Shut up! We are not going back to that again!_"

"**Anto face the facts, you crush on other girls too easily. You're surprisingly pure for a young man are you not?**"

The red on his face betrayed the attempt on anger in his telepathic voice. "_I'm not hearing this! Let's go back to the Pokémon Center!_"

"**And meet with her again? How very bold of you.**"

"_Dang it Takezo!_" The boy with a flushed face started to storm towards the Pokémon Center.

Then he walked away from the direction of the Pokémon Center and wondered if he could find Poké Star Studios. Takezo trailed behind, smiling and laughing purely the entire way from the young dreaming romantic.

The Cherry Blossoms around them continued to bloom as they made their way back to Virbank City.

Strange if one thought about it though: why did a field of Cherry Blossoms bloom when a certain young boy started walking nearby?

[Meanwhile]

In the Virbank City Gym, Benga had met up with Roxie, the Poison type Gym leader.

"So what's this important battle you have?" The red haired boy asked the white haired rocker.

"Mr. Clay said that I should have a battle with a trainer named Anto and to give my best at it! I heard he was super tough, so I might need your help for some crash course training!"

Benga's eyes lit up. "Anto!? You're in luck! I met him and he sure is something! Man you're so lucky! I had to cut my battle with him short!"

"Did you accidentally burn something again?"

"Why is that your automatic assumption?!" Benga cried with a hint of hurt in his tone while Roxie just gave her friend a deadpan look and crossed her arms. Benga sighed and slouched. "Alright I might have gotten carried away with Fire Blast, but it's one of my favorite moves dang it!"

"I hear ya, I can get really into it when I'm fighting as well. What do you recommend?"

"Use all your best and reserves against him! Hold nothing back!" Benga cried out.

On his return to Virbank City, Anto felt this overwhelming and unknowing urge to punch something red.

Roxie smiled excitedly. "Whoa! In that case I've got just the Pokémon ready for him! This is gonna be an exciting battle!"

[Elsewhere.]

The girl Anto had met earlier flushed as she walked in to the Pokémon Center. "Oh I can't believe I messed up! He looked so bothered by me, and he was kinda cute too..."

"I'm sorry what did you say and point me to him so I can kill him." There was an older girl, around 17 to 18 years of age that looked very similar to the young girl except with brown colored eyes instead of amethyst and her hair was longer and styled as a pony tail. She was wearing a stylish jacket, designer hat, and some slim jeans and she had an amazing figure.

"Sis! Don't overreact! I just got lost." The younger girl cried out.

"Tiana, I told you to stay here! You could have at least told Victor you were leaving!" The older sister spoke out.

"I wasn't going out long and I can fend for myself!" Tiana complained to her over bearing sister. "I have Pokémon too! Quit coddling me!"

"Tiana I'm just worried for you!"

"You always say that! Ever since I woke up from my coma, you've been breathing down my neck without any of my say!" Tiana whined. "Heck! I didn't even get a say when we first left Kalos! You just strong armed and bribed me into coming!"

"We didn't have anyone to take care of you if you stayed there!" Her sister screamed back.

"There was your friend's mother, Trinity! I mean sure I wanted to leave, but I felt forced when I had to! You're running my life!"

"I'm protecting you as your older sister!" Trinity yelled back.

Tiana stomped her foot. "Well I can prove to you that I can handle things myself! I don't need you!" She yelled out angrily before storming out.

Trinity wanted to go after her but she was being such a brat and she really wanted to cool off.

The older sister was too distracted to notice Jamie looking confused at the screaming between the two.

"Wait… haven't I seen that girl before?" Jamie wondered as she looked towards Trinity walking up to her room.

**{Author Notes}**

**No gym today, but I thought some character building would be needed since I looked back at this story, there isn't that much character building about one of the mainc characters even though he is an OC. To be honest, I've always had this aversion but like to OC stories. I love it when OCs change a story or act to how they live in a different world, but I kind of dis like it where they start to become the focal point, or that whatever they do heavily decides the outcome of things. (Basically I dislike Mary Sue Characters.) Because of that, I've always written this story with the back of my mind thinking that no one actually likes OCs and it's kind of why that Anto hasn't really grown much in character, because I've been a bit afraid to really write him or else people wouldn't like him. But someone (Death To Original Naming) told me that my sense of prioritizing and choose to characterize others instead of my main character was draining the story.**

**So this time, I'm gonna be a little more balanced. Anto's going to have his own doubts and worries that will come and go, but he's going to hopefully grow into a fine young man by the end of his journey.**

**Next up! Benga, The grandson of Alder! I don't know much about this guy, but the fact he has a flipping Latios and Latias depending on which version of the second game you get is very interesting. I was re watching Hoopa and the Clash of ages, and I noticed something peculiar about one of the characters there who claimed to have some powers of Arceus. That kinda got me to thinking that maybe I could incorporate it and add more into some of these characters. There's also the fact that since in the second game, Alder lives in that coastal peak in the seconds series, it was more than likely that Benga lived there too for some time. **

**I imagined him being good friends with Roxie and the two of them banging their heads along the heavy and up beat metal/rock music very amusing. And for some reason it fits since Benga himself seems like somewhat of a wild child.**

**Edit: Oh and one more thing. I asked MangoLimePie, you guys know him, I work with him he works with me, and I thought about a fun little crossover. Tiana and Trinity (and another certain character) are owned by him and I'm using them in the upcoming story. It's time Anto got experience fighting Trainers from other Fics!**

**That's all for now.**

**Thanks for reading.**


	35. Ep 35: Clash With The Band!

"So where have you been? Haven't seen much of you since yesterday." Jamie asked Wes as she, Anto, and he went towards the Virbank gym. White was still helping out in Poké Star Studios since her mom was still on a break there came a lot of problems that White had to handle in her absence. It looked more and more like she would have to continue staying there, which was kind of a letdown for everyone and Anto.

"Checked out a band; it was OK. Guess heavy metal or Rock isn't my thing." The older teen from Orre spoke out.

"Wait a concert? Shouldn't that have only been like an hour or two?" Anto pointed out as he fiddled with an Ultra Ball that contained Super Nut. The reason why Anto had the Ultra Ball in the first place was because Wes still had a couple extra Ultra Balls he had picked up during Castelia City, and when he first tried to keep the heroic Ferrothorn in one, he realized that he never bought a new Poké Ball to keep him in.

"I also stayed around the beach. It was kinda nice to feel a cool breeze rather than the dessert air. Saw this weird brown haired guy though but he was painting the sunset. He reminded me of Head Band." Wes nonchalantly mentioned.

"How are they anyway? I haven't heard from either him or Summer for a while." Anto asked.

"Well I already told you about how I talked with Headband recently. As for the Nerd, I have literally no idea—hey wait a sec." Wes stopped as they all came in front of the gym. "I was here yesterday. This is the place where I went to that concert! … Wow I can't believe I didn't notice the gym sign."

"… Why are there so many people coming into the gym?" Jamie pointed out as they noticed more heavily dark clothed people with ear piercings, tattoos, and different colored hair started flooding in towards the gym.

"It looks like another concert." The Snagger mentioned before they noticed that there was someone coming out of the gym with bright orange hair.

"Oh! Anto! There you are!"

"Benga?" The mute asked the fiery teen came up to him and grabbed his arm and quickly pulled him towards the gym.

"Great you're here! Now let's get your battle with Roxie going!"

Wes picked up that name. "Duh! The gymleader and band leader are the same person. Yeesh I'm off my game."

A little later, Anto was surprised to see that the gym really did double as a concert like Wes had mentioned previously. He was lead down a different path that everyone else was heading.

Blasts of music came around him.

He felt the need to cover his ears, or at least one of them since Benga looked unhindered by the volume of sound bouncing around the room and was still pulling him by the arm. Anto looked up to see bright lights flashing across the battle field with a trio of people playing heavy and upbeat rock music. The crowds were jumping and cheering in tandem with the music as the lead guitarist, a female with silver hair with another punk-attire who was furiously weaving her fingers to the metal strings.

The band made the music tempo faster, signaling that the song was reaching its end, which did soon after in a spectacular fashion, making the crowd cheer wildly despite being so far away on both sides of the gym while Benga started to lead Anto towards a huge field.

"Rock on!" The gym leader finished as the crowd roared with excitement. "If you'll like that, then you'll love this! We got a special challenger today folks!" The audience was eating this all up. "And that's not all: guess what!? I've been told that I should use some of the best of my Pokémon against him! So he's in for one heck of a time!"

Wait wha? Anto quietly thought to himself. She was going to use her best team against him!?

"No need to thank me, Anto!" Benga spoke over the crowd and slapped Anto in the back with an excited smile.

YOU!

Anto glared at his new friend who was starting to cause him as much grief as his Pokémon were.

The mute felt Benga get behind him and start pushing him towards the main field. "Give Roxie a great battle! I'll be watching closely!"

Roxie pointed toward the opposite end of the field where all the spotlights raced to shine down on Anto nervously standing on the opposite end. "Introducing, Anto! The challenger!"

It sure was nice of the crowd to cheer for him though he could have done without seeing so many body piercings on one person in that crowd. The mute then noticed screens lighting up behind Roxie revealing that this was to be a six on six Pokémon battle. This was the longest gym fight he had yet.

"Ready!?" Roxie strung her guitar, letting its sound echo as she expertly followed that momentum by snatching a nearby Poké Ball and raising it into the air in one motion.

The energy in the gym was infectious. Anto felt his blood getting pumped as well as he took position in the battlefield and held on to an Ultra Ball.

"Let's start the show, Go Weezing!" She threw the sphere as a blue light appeared and revealed the two headed and levitating Poison type.

"**Hey everybody! Is it time for my Ventriloquism act? Behold my puppet friend!**" The main head of the Poison type closed his mouth as a completely different voice came out of the smaller head. "**I keep telling you: I'm not actually your puppet! I'm you, you fool!**"

In the other corner, Super Nut appeared and even though there was no wind, his cape still fluttered majestically somehow.

"**And thus Super Nut makes his debut! … Why can't I hear myself monologue?!**" Super Nut tried to cry out over the screaming fans and heavy music.

"Ooo that's clever! A grass type, but it's also a steel type! You sneaky little… but it's time to GET THIS BATTLE ON!" With those words, Roxie's band started playing another musical number, prompting the crowd to cheer loudly.

However, a while back in the crowd, a familiar girl with moderately long black hair and amethyst eyes tried to get past towards the main field. "Oh! I can't believe I got lost in a gym of all places! And why are there so many people here?" Tiana cried before noticing the loud, ear beating music coming to halt and then hearing the gym leader, who was also in the band, address her current challenger.

"Huh? Him!?" She put a hand near her mouth as she recognized that boy she bothered yesterday. He was taking a gym challenge?

Much to her surprise, and along with many people, the Pokémon the challenger had was wearing a tied up blanket cape that was strangely fluttering in the wind. She was honestly kind of surprised at how… odd his Pokémon was.

The challengers acted first in the fight, letting lose giant rocks that scattered and levitated across the field. This signaled that Anto and Super Nut had just used Stealth Rocks. Roxie seemed shock but then smile quickly after. Weezing followed suit by unexpectedly firing a Flamethrower attack on the steel and grass type, but Super Nut quickly used Protect to block the flames. Quickly Super Nut shot out one of his clamps by using Power Whip, but Roxie ordered Weezing to dodge the attack—making Anto smile.

Trainers always yell to dodge an attack from their opponent, but Anto was expecting it from the start.

The Power Whip continued past Weezing to a flying rock behind them.

"_Keep them guessing!_"

Ferrothorn started to slingshot round the arenas, jumping across each rock quickly by whipping and shooting himself around. Weezing frantically looked around, whenever they would catch sight of Ferrothorn he was already swinging to the next rock randomly floating around. The crowd cooed in excitement. They had never seen a trainer used Stealth Rocks like this before and Roxie and her band were also both impressed and excited.

But there was _no way_ that she was letting the challenger steal the show from her! She commanded along with the music to order Weezing to use a wide spread flame thrower. The flying poison type stared spinning around wildly, encompassing a large area of fire. However, Anto smiled. That technically meant that Weezing was staying in one spot.

To everyone out side, they all saw Ferrothorn jump to the highest floating rock available and shoot out one vine to the ceiling. Once on the ceiling, he shoot out two of his clamps to two rocks that just so happened to line up to where Weezing was in his area of fire.

"Uh oh!" Roxie panicked as Super Nut shot with bullet speed right for Weezing and quickly ordered her to use Self Destruct. Along with the Fire, Weezing glowed brightly before unleashing a devastating boom which made the entire audience silent as they watched the dust cloud spread across the arena.

"… What happened?" Jamie asked as she looked to Wes who only continued to stare at the field.

Benga was looking on as well but then he smiled.

From the smoke, something quickly shot out and rolled along the ground in a giant green force field—The Protect move. As the force field faded, Super Nut rolled along the ground and jumped up, before landing on to the field with his cape fluttering.

"**Another "Explosive Victory" for SSSUUUPPPER NUT!**" He declared.

The crowd cheered wildly as the screens around them showed that the first knockout went to the challenger.

"**Oh wow! The civilians are actually cheering for me! But it's only a matter of time before my archnemesis turns the public against me!**" The super hero dramtically spoke out before looking plainly back at Anto and shouting,"**… Danger Damoiseau!? Do I have an Archnemesis yet?**"

"_What? No!_"

"… **We should get one!**" And that was Anto's cue to recall his newest member back into his Ultra Ball. He didn't notice that in the crowd, there was a girl giggling at his Pokémon.

"Haha! Alright! Now I know you're the real deal!" Roxie spoke out as she started to play another song. "Now it's time to really kick it up a notch!"

Anto nodded before throwing out a Great Ball, making Ohko come out into the field with his cloak.

"Righteous!" Roxie declared before throwing out her next Pokémon: a Gengar.

Anto sweatdropped at the appearance of the ghost type but thankfully the Rocks surrounding them reformed and all attacked the ghost type from all sides.

Roxie smiled as out from the shadows, Gengar popped up with his tongue sticking out towards Ohko. He didn't even look slightly damaged, letting the mute realize that he must have phased into the ground or something to avoid the crushing rocks.

The one armed Sawk pointed back to Gengar."**Whoa! That's the second biggest tongue I've seen in my life yo!**"

Being completely unaware of that, Roxie started her Gengar off with a Shadow Ball attack. The ghost poison type threw them all one after another, but Ohko started running around the corner to avoid most of the spheres. Ohko thought he would try to fight back and quickly formed his variation of Focus Blast in his palm before jumping over a Shadow Ball and throwing the condensed sphere at one of the attacks. However, Focus Blast phased through both the Shadow Ball and Gengar.

"**Wha?**" Ohko asked before he got hit by a Shadow Ball.

"_Snap Right! I didn't remind him! Ohko! Fighting Type moves don't work on Ghost Types! You have to rely on energy or elemental moves like your Dual Chop attack! Just keep trying to avoid for now, I'll figure something out!_"

Ohko got back up and locked sights with Gengar who seemed to be laughing it up. Anto had this strange feeling that Ohko wasn't completely listening to him before he noticed that he placed his hand towards one of the burned areas that Wheezing spewed Flamethrower on. The Sawk looked at his hand and put his palm on the heat of the surface that was cooling off but still fairly warm.

The blue fighting type seemed strangely attentive to absolutely nothing.

Then Gengar started firing more Shadow Balls. Ohko dodged the attacks and started running towards Gengar and then he ignited his fist with Dragonic energy. His eyes briefly darted to the attack before he jumped up and punched the ground where Gengar just phased into. The ground shook hard from the force the fighting type, and allowing some people to notice that the Sawk only had one arm. Ohko looked at his Fist, which was still covered in dragon energy and he stared at it as if he was deep at thought.

Gengar popped up from the shadows, launching another volley of Shadow Ball this time in tandem with some Sludge Wave attacks. Anto tried to warn Ohko, but the one armed Sawk dodged the attacks easily. The mute wondered what was going but Ohko seemed to be suddenly playing with his Dual Chop move, igniting his fist over and over again with dragonic energy. Not to mention he was still trying to think of a way for Ohko to get close enough to hit Gengar without her phasing into the ground or speeding away. Though, he had this feeling Ohko seemed to realize that quicker than he did.

From the sides, Benga looked on with interest. "Huh? Well I'll be a Primeape's Uncle…"

Ohko formed another Focus Blast in his palm, prompting Gengar to laugh and prepare another Shadow Ball. Yet Ohko crushed the energy orb into a denser form again, but this time something was different. The bright blue color of the attack suddenly changed into red.

The One armed Sawk side stepped the Shadow Ball, spun around, and lifted his leg high into the air before stepping down hard. Following a base ball pitcher's stance, he threw the 'Red' Focus Blast right towards Gengar. Roxie knew something was up and quickly told her Gengar to fly high. The Gengar did so, but after getting away the orb burst into flames!

That shocked everyone, including Anto. Speaking off, the mute trainer quickly looked towards Ohko who had his fist literally on fire but he had a smile on his face.

"**Yo it worked! … But what's burning?**" He scratched his head, making the fire lit up on his head.

Did Ohko just figure out how to use an elemental move? … And was he really not paying attention? How could a Pokémon be that smart and that dumb at the same time!?

"_Ohko, you're on fire!_"

"**Oh, thanks boss!**"

"_No! You're __literally__ on fire_!"

"**What's that liter word mean?**"

"_For the love of Arceus! Look at yourself!_"

Ohko did and proceeded stop, duck, and roll and scream… in the complete opposite order. The heat rising from the blush appearing on his checks did not help the poor, embarrassed boy.

Roxie thought she would help out the guy and played the music up a little more before making Gengar attack again.

Ohko, finally not on fire, noticed the Gengar and put a smile back on his face. This time he ignited another fire laced Focus Blast and threw it right towards the Shadow Ball. This time, the two attacks collided and caused an explosion. Gengar and Roxie covered themselves, but out of the dust Ohko came out with his right leg set ablaze in orange flames going straight for an Axe Kick, but Gengar moved quickly back, readying one of her own Shadow Ball and then firing it right as Ohko was about to land. Unfortunately it was a direct hit and Ohko coiled back until he got knocked out on conscious.

"_Not bad Ohko, we'll work more on that elemental Focus Blast later. Let's go Kryx!_" Anto threw out the Premier Ball and in a bright red flash, the Elegym waved out.

"**Ooh! Another Ghost to dissect!**"

"**Wait wha?**" Roxie's Gegnar asked.

Roxie kicked it off by telling Gegnar to launch another Shadow Ball. However, Kryx quickly Teleported away from the path of the attack and right behind Gengar! Before she could move, Kryx touched Gengar and teleported back into the sky taking the ghost type with her. Gengar charged another Shadow Ball and backed away from Kryx.

However, to the ghost type's surprise, Kryx was not moving and just smiling at her. She wondered what—

Then she got hit by the Shadow Ball she launched earlier. Kryx had quickly teleported towards Gengar, picked her up and put her right between her attack and the original target! Kryx capitalized on the direct hit and used Psychic to slam the ghost and poison type into the ground and knock her out cold.

It looked like Gengar couldn't take on the super effective blows from both Kryx and herself. Roxie smiled at how all of the challenger's Pokémon so far were so unpredictable! She was really enjoying herself as the other members in her band were actually pumped to see what would come next.

Roxie then threw out her anti Psychic Pokémon, a Drapion. These things were ruthless, vicious, and when the Stealth Rocks came crashing into the Poison type, He shrugged it off and roared mightily towards the challenger's little psychic lacing his claws with dark energy…

"_Kryx, Miracle Eye._"

The psychic's eyes lit up like Christmas light and then she used a heavy Psychic blast on the Dark type… and it worked. The blast was strong enough to one shot the Drapion apparently because he let down his guard and it was a critical.

"... Mediocre." Wes noted as everyone awed at how easily that Pokémon went down.

Three Pokémon down compared to Anto's one Pokémon down. Things looked to be in favor of the challenger, but Roxie, even after that underwhelming round seemed to be really enjoying herself. She then let loose her fourth Pokémon, Toxicroak who when appeared destroyed all rocks flying towards it with repeated punches.

Then he took… a rather fabulous and manly pose that looked strangely familiar... especially with that hand near his face.

It was a quad weakness, but something told him this wouldn't be an easy fight. Kryx quickly tried to gather Psychic energy—

"**ZA WARUDO!**"

Somehow Toxicroak closed in the distance between Kryx and himself and punched her with Sucker Punch. Granted the move was a priority move, but even that type of speed was insane. However, even after the follow up punch, Toxicraok unleashed a flurry of them in combination.

"**Muda muda muda mudamudamuda!**" He cried after each punch before punching Kryx into the ground and knocking her out cold.

"**You thought you would win, but it was I! Toxicroak!**" The fighting and poison type spoke out as he took on a very manly and fabulous pose with his hand on his face.

[SFX: Menacing!]

Anto quickly looked around. "_What was that?_" For some reason he could have sworn he heard the sound of an atmosphere. He shook his head. The Toxicroak looked really powerful—he didn't quite know why—and the sad part was that Ohko and Kryx were both knocked out, and he didn't want to use Lily or Takezo because they both had a disadvantage against this guy. As for Sentinel, that Sucker Punch combo would eat him alive, so there was only one other course of action.

Super Nut descended back into the field.

"**Ha! Another pitiful challenger believes he can defeat me?! Toxicroak!?**" The bipedal frog posed dramatically and in such a way didn't look possible for the humanoid bone structure to bend.

"**This menacing Aura!** **A wild Archnemesis appears! You shall not win villain for today, Super Nut shall prevail!**" Super Nut shouted out.

Roxie commanded Toxicroak to use Drain Punch and punched Super Nut some distance away. His fist hurt, but he was able to heal some of it because of the drain part of the ability and of how super effective it was.

"**You cannot hope to stand against me! Toxic… NANI?!(What!?)**" Toxicroak noticed that there were vines solely popping around his body and wrapping themselves all over his body. Some leaves on the vine bloomed and he felt himself becoming weaker. He looked across to Ferrothorn and saw that his initial punch was healing up!

Everyone recognized that it was a Leech Seed move! The longer Toxicroak was out, the more his energy would drain.

Ferrothorn stood back tall—as he could possibly since he was close to the ground in the first place. "**It appears we are now at an impasse! Will your fierce punches knock me out? Or will my steel break your fists before you get to me?**"

He spoke as his cape suddenly shot up heroically.

[SFX: Epic Stare Down!]

"_No seriously, what is that?_" Anto looked around as if something was causing him to feel actions as atmosphere.

"**Oh? Interesting lowly challenger, you seek to test the might of me? Toxicroak!? Prepare yourself! MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!**" The fighting poison type declared before furiously using drain punch to sap Super Nut's energy while the Toxicroak had his energy being stolen right back from the Leech Seed while hurting his fists each time he punched Ferrothorn's tick and steel spike skin.

The crowds were chanting hard as they watched the test of endurance between the two Pokémon.

Meanwhile, in one of the crowds, two people appeared from one of the side line entrance and looked around.

"There she is!" A male with black hair wearing a blue and white stripped polo wearing red cargo pants and white sneakers pointed towards Tiana sitting in the crowd and watching the battle. The girl next to him made her way, but the male stopped her.

"Trinity, you should probably wait until after the battle."

"What? Victor why!?" The older sister of the girl asked as the male pointed back to the fight.

Victor pointed over to battle where Super Nut was taking all of Toxicroak's blows. "I umm… I want to see that battle."

In one final throw, Toxicroak punched Super Nut as hard as he could, showing a shock wave as he made contact with Ferrothorn's skin.

Everyone stayed silent as they watched the two Pokémon unmoving…

Suddenly, the Ferrothorn shot out two of his Power Whips to two of the Stealth Rock boulders and pulled them in right towards the both of them.

The two boulders slammed both Pokémon together and caused Toxicroak to fall. The crowd cheered wildly.

"**Awesome! I defeated my… ne…mesis**…" Super Nut spoke out before he fainted as well.

The two combatants returned their Pokémon. Now it was two versus three in favor of the challenger.

The trainer smiled before launching out Lily into the field while Roxie brought out her Scolipede. Suddenly, Scolipede moved so fast, that he avoided the boulders from crushing him then right away using Mega Horn towards his opponent. Quickly Anto and Lily responded by having the grass type lift herself up in the air with her Magical Leaf.

However, Anto was noticing that Scolipede was moving even faster than before. This time Roxie commanded Scolipede to start using the flying Stealth Rock Boulders to jump across and hit Lily with a Poison Tail For a while, Lily dodged it, but Scolipede was getting faster and faster.

Quickly Anto told Lily to use Flash and blind the Scolipede, as everyone opened their eyes, they saw a large amount of grass clones scattered all over the place. And then they started dancing! It seemed Lily was a fan of music because now she was dancing along with Roxie's band and the crowd thought she was cute and fun for doing that. Roxie enjoyed that her opponent's Pokémon were enjoying her music, but she also knew she couldn't let him set up like that and quickly ordered Scolipede to attack all the Clones as quickly as possible.

Anto was surprised at how fast Scolipede was getting all to the clones despite how being wide spread across the field and levitating boulders they were. Then it hit him! The Scolipede had Speed Boost!

All remaining leaf clones stopped dancing and faced towards the Soclipeded and then they all started glowing brightly until they blinded the field again with another huge Flash attack.

Scolipede felt his eyes burns and shook his head before he was blasted by an empowered Energy Ball and flew into a giant leaf fist that grabbed a hold of Scolipede and raised him high before throwing him into the ground like a rock.

However, Roxie noticed when that giant hand was formed Lily had revealed herself on one of the Stealth Rocks floating around. Roxie told Scolipede that their opponent revealed themselves and quickly while being thrown mid air, Scoliepde rolled itself into a huge ball and bounced off the ground towards another rock and bounced off again, hitting Lily off her rock. Anto panicked but before he could tell Lily to catch herself, Scolipede quickly unrolled and landed on another rock and dashed with a Poison Tail lit up then smashed Lily mid air into the ground, knocking her hard from the momentum and the super effective attack.

The crowd cheered wildly. The challenger was good, but Roxie had tied it up; it was now two on two! The final stretch was coming! Roxie recalled Scolipede in favor of one of her toughest Pokémon, Garbodor. At his appearance all of Roxie's hardcore fans cheered wildly.

The boulders all quickly raced to crush Garbordor, but he quickly extended his arms and smacked away the incoming rocks.

"_Oh sure, when I use Stealth Rocks, it barely works…_" Anto thought back.

This Pokémon was her ace, and Anto knew that her remaining two Pokémon would be hard to defeat, but who cares about that? The music was pumping his blood, he was laser focused, his heart was beating a mile a second, and he was having fun with everyone else! He took out the Dusk Ball and threw out Sentinel.

"**What's that smell?**" The ghost dragon asked.

"_You don't even have an olfactory sense anymore!_"

"**Oh right—wait. How did I sniff you out in Driftviel? Oh wait no; I forgot Kryx planted a tracking device on you.**"

"_What was that?_"

The crowd cooed in awe at such a rare and strange looking Pokémon, but Roxie smiled at the chance of seeing a rare Pokémon. She greeted it on with Garbodor's Gunk Shot. Anto shook his head and countered the attack with Phantom Force, which made Sneitnel disappear into thin air. Garbador looked around, but then Sentinel appeared right in front of him with his mouth filled with ice…

Then unleashed the Frost Breath attack near point blank range.

Sentinel jumped on the frozen ice chunk near Garbdor's face, and kicked off, making the Poison type fall over and break the ice as he fell into the ground.

Garbdor looked more ticked that injured and fired another Gunk Shot. Sentinel saw this and slipped back into Phantom Force to avoid the blow. Roxie just smiled as she played a sudden of key tune. Anto wondered why she did that so suddenly, but then Sentinel came out from behind Garbodor, igniting his Shadow Claws and rending the back of the Poison type. Garbodor flinched, before he smiled and before unleashing a noxious fume/Toxic Gas as soon as Sentinel made contact. Sentinel backed off, coughing violently with violet hues over him.

He was Poisoned!

But then Anto realized that Roxie could command her Pokémon with her music notes instead of commands!

Roxie pointed dramatically while playing a strange up beat song. Garbodor pointed his hands at the coughing Sentinel and hit him with green goop that shot out of his fingers—Venoshock as Roxie called out. The goop hit and Sentinel was shocked heavily by the attack and sent flying back.

Crap, Anto completely forgot his Pokémon could totally get poisoned in a poison type gym—curse you hindsight. He definitely should have bought some Pecha Berries.

Sentinel shoot back up. He looked injured and getting weaker as the poison took effect.

Then his ghost fire flared mightily, causing everyone to be shocked. Sentinel's Ghost version of Blaze kicked in, pointed his hand towards Garbodor.

"_Breath of Unlife!_" Anto yelled out the Dual Move of Shadow Ball and Dragon Breath, unleashing a powerful torrent of dragonic and ghost energy that blasted Garbador head on with vicious force.

The attack died down and Sentinel fell to his knees from the poison. Anto looked to Garbodor, the damage was obvious, but the Pokémon was still standing. Gabodor roared out his name before charging another Gunk Shot.

"…_! Specter Step!_" Anto called out the Dual Move of Shadow Sneak and Phantom Force. To everyone's surprise, Sentinel basically _teleported_ right behind Garbodor with Leviathan Rend, the Fusion Move of Shadow and Dragon Claw.

With a mighty swipe, Sentinel struck the same spot awhile ago, causing Garbodor to visibly wince in pain from the stronger attack towards his weakened spot.

Garbodor moved, trying to hit Sentinel with another Venoshock. The Ghost dragon disappeared and used his teleporting move to appear right above and launch a heavily empowered Shadow Ball right above the Garbodor.

Despite the explosion, Garbodor stood up, looking weaker and weaker, just like Sentinel.

"_Sentinel, can you really take more?_" Anto asked, gripping his Dusk Ball and getting ready to call back his friend.

"**Please… just a little more Anti!**" Sentinel gasped from his drained energy.

"_You're exerting so much force, remember, Kryx's only slowed your decay, she didn't fully heal it!_" Anto bitterly thought.

"**It doesn't hurt anymore Anti, but I can do this. I can still get you to the league.**"

"_Sentinel…_"

The dragon skeleton ignited his claws one more time. "**I owe you that much and more!** **HA!**" The Dragon cried as he came up rushed one more time towards Garbodor. The mighty poison type shot another Venoshock at the charging and unsuspecting Sentinel since he moved and aimed the attack at the last second.

Sentinel felt pain, but he gritted his fangs and powered through the blast and unleashed a devastating Leviathan Rend before sliding away from his momentum.

The arena was silent again.

Thud!

Sentinel… dropped to his knees, but still stayed strong.

As for their opponent, Garbodor fell down on the ground face first.

"_Good Job Sentinel._" Anto quickly spoke out as he returned his Pokémon.

With how weak Sentinel was, there was only one Pokémon left on each side.

Roxie unleashed a held breath. She looked like she was sweating, but she looked lively and energetic, and even more pumped before.

"This is it everyone! The final round! Are you as pumped as I am!?"

Everyone roared in agreement.

Roxie pointed to Anto, all spotlights shined on him as she did so. "Challenger, show me your soul! Show me you're drive! Let it rip!"

The mute obliged, he fished for his belt and shot out a Poké Ball into the air with his left thumb, before grabbing it in the air with his right hand as it extended into palm size.

"_The Battlefield Calls! Rise up, Takezo!_" Anto shouted as his last Pokémon came out, a Patrat.

Suddenly the crowds died out quicker as they stared at the choice of Pokémon from the challenger. Patrats were usually used by youngsters and newbie trainers with how common they were. That was a bit of a letdown.

"A Patrat?" Victor asked as he stood with Trinity in watching the battle. "That's a weird last Pokémon."

Trinity stared at the small little Pokémon for a second and then felt her mind wander. She quickly shook her head. "Whoa."

"What?"

"… That Pokémon…" Trinity trialed off as she glued her eyes towards the normal type.

However, Roxie strummed her guitar.

"Oh come on now guys!" She yelled out to the crowd. "After all the challenger did to pump us up, you really think he's going to give us a disappointing finale!? Well then… it's time to restore their faith, Rock the Stage, Scolipede!"

She threw out her Pokémon commanding him to avoid the Stealth rocks a second time before ordering a Steam Roller attack. Takezo stood his ground at the speed of the Pokémon and placed a hand on his blade. As Scolipede came closer, Takezo's eyes blazed blue with Detect and he slashed right at Scolipede, causing the Pokémon to fly off and land on the ground from the strike.

Everyone stared in shock except Wes, Benga, and Jamie. The most common Pokémon in Unova; no one had ever seen a Patrat in that level before.

"His Patrat… uses a sword?" Tiana in the crowd looked on with awe. His Pokémon were so weird… yet they were so capable…

Roxie started playing a song again, signaling her band to follow. This time, a really fast song was playing.

Scolipede got up, smiling as he readied himself launch himself at Takezo again. The Patrat lifted his arms, and glowing swords appeared dancing around him. He was using Swords Dance. Scolipede readied himself, before launching himself at faster speeds than before. Takezo used Detect, but then quickly jumped away as he noticed the burst of speed was far more than he saw. Anto quickly told the normal type to get towards the rocks and soon Takezo jumped across the floating earth with Scolipede closely behind him.

Anto glanced around and then noticed something among the air: a rather large Stealth Rock. As it floated around, the mute had an idea. Getting his orders, Takezo jumped to the largest rock in the area and waited. Scolipede made the jump and landed on the large floating boulder with Takezo.

The challenger smiled. "_Now Takezo!_"

The samurai quickly ran as fast as he could towards the edge of the rock, with Scolipede quickly after the normal type as to not let him escape. However, when right near the edge, Takezo hurriedly stabbed his wooden blade into the rock and held tightly as his body flew up from the pull!

Scolipede and Roxie wondered why Takezo did that until they started noticing that the boulder was tilting over! The two Pokémon were at the edge and the boulder was starting to flip over on their side! Scolipede realized their plan was to let him fall off on accident and quickly he turned around and started running on the opposite direction.

"_Bingo._"

Benga laughed while Wes whistled.

"She definitely fell for that."

Takezo saw that and quickly kicked off towards a smaller rock before watching with an amused smile.

What Scolipede didn't realize was that by kicking off with his speed, he was making the Boulder tip over faster, as to not get caught, Scolipede ran even faster thanks to his speed boost. However that proved to be a problem when the faster he ran, the more the boulder started to spin underneath him! He ran and he ran but then he noticed that the boulder beneath him was spinning—oh Arceus, he was log rolling on a flying boulder wasn't he!? Now he had to keep moving on the rock and if he stopped he would be thrown off by the fast spinning rock that he was creating!

"What!?" Roxie cried out as she saw her fastest Pokémon's speed use against him as he had to keep running on the spinning boulder or be thrown off it if he paused for even a second!

"_If you're going to ask how I did that, I need to answer you that I make it up as I go along._" Anto connected to Roxie who seemed slightly surprised to hear a voice in her head. "_But I'm getting that badge! I have a league to get into now more than ever! Takezo, Blade Storm!_"

Takezo charged golden thunder blades and threw them high over the trapped Scolipede. He jumped up high then brought all the golden, electric swords together to form a Katana around his wooden blade. Then Takezo descended down upon Scolipede like a strike from the heavens with a powerful thundering boom!

The bolt of electricity struck the ground and Takezo slashed the air, traces of electricity flying off his blade before he slowly sheathed his wooden blade. When he fully completed, Scolipede's unconscious body fell into the floor.

The screens all lighted up with the winner of this battle: Anto!

The crowds cheered, screaming that was the coolest Patrat they had all ever seen.

Roxie ended her music and she and her band ran up to Anto, with Benga jumping in right after them.

"Well done Anto!" Roxie spoke as she visibly gasped for breath with her band. She was pretty tired from both battling and playing fast songs for a six on six battle. OK she now learned not to play when it is a six on six battle, she got way too tired fast. "Honestly, I really wanted to win… but I'm glad we had that battle! It was the most fun I've had in a while!"

Anto noticed the boulders flying around were starting to turn into dust with the battle over.

The pain on his back revealed that Benga had just slapped him for congratulations. "That battle was amazing Anto! I knew I sense you had a strong spirit!"

"_I guess I have to thank you after all Benga. I'm going to have to do a lot more training if I can barely beat the best of a gym leader._"

"Oh so you were right on him being a psychic." Roxie looked to Benga. "Still, talking with your mind is weird. I prefer the old vocal chords. But anyway! I present to you, the Toxic Badge! You've definitely earned it for one heck of a fight!"

Anto caught the badge. Six down, two to go!

"Way to go mute!" Anto turned and saw Wes and Jamie come up.

Benga looked over to Wes. "Ah ha! Another strong trainer! Battle me!"

"No."

"OK then." Benga relaxed as Wes answered nonchalantly.

Anto looked incredulously between Wes and Benga. "_Hold up a sec—that's __all__ it took!?_" He was very stressed if it really was that easy to stop him from being so involved.

"What? I can't force people to fight if they don't want to. That would be rude." Benga spoke out plainly.

"_But… But…_" Anto was at a loss for words, which should be his normal state since he is mute.

Roxie turned to the crowds. "Let's give a hand to our winner!"

The crowd cheered loudly for the boy, making him forget his troubles.

Back in the crowd, Tiana found herself cheering loudly for the boy even though he didn't know his name or anything about him. His battle was amazing, but more than that his Pokémon! They were… he made the people like them!

Tiana felt something wrong and quickly scanned the area. She looked over to see her sister and Victor coming up towards her. She was not meeting with her sister just yet! Quickly Tiana slipped into the crowd, hopping that she wouldn't get caught just yet.

Roxie led the band and the other guests out a different exit. "That was one epic battle, but we've still got a concert to finish up. It may not be as exciting, but we're almost done anyway. I'm not allowed to this, but I'm going to be rooting for you Anto!" Roxie spoke out as she slapped Anto's back much harder than he predicted.

"_Thanks. But I gotta heal everyone else. So I'll stop be the Pokémon Center really quick._" Anto and Benga waved goodbye as Roxie went back into her gym/concert.

"You know after that, I'm kind of hungry. How about we go to The Snorlax Buffet and wait for you there?" Jamie offered.

Anto just nodded before leaving himself. There was only one buffet in this town so it wasn't that hard to find where they would go.

"Ooh I'm coming along!" Benga declared.

"Who are you again?" Wes asked.

"Benga!"

"Wes. Jamie." The Orre boy pointed to himself before he pointed with his thumb on the girl beside him to introduce themselves to one of the many colorful cast of people Anto attracts.

"Nice to meet you miss!" Benga greeted and shook hands with Jamie.

"Nice to meet… how did you know I was a girl!?" Jamie realized with horror.

Benga looked confused and titled his head at the panicked question. "Huh? But it was obvious."

The Orre Thief felt something at the back of his head and placed an arm to rub it. "Man I am really off today." Wes muttered as he felt like something wasn't quite right about today while he ignored Jamie asking how it was so obvious to Benga about her supposedly hidden gender.

Meanwhile, Anto was making his way towards the Center when he felt himself get blindsided by someone and got tackled over.

"_Ow really!? Can my luck get any worse—_" Anto paused when he realized that he didn't get tackled by accident or by some random object, he got tackled by that same beautiful girl with the gorgeous amethyst eyes he met yesterday. And she was really, really close…

Oh Arceus!

"W-Wah! I-I'm sorry I didn't see you!" The girl cried as she got off the boy with her face as red as Anto's for that mishap.

"_I-It's fine, I've had worse incidents…_" Anto projected as his mind went back to him accidentally kissing White—gah!

The girl turned to him with shock. "W-Wait did you just use telepathy?"

"_Y-yeah. It's complicated, but I can't really talk otherwise._" Anto stood back up, dusted himself, and then offered a hand up to the girl to help her up. He was kind of nervous around her especially since he didn't know who she was.

"TIANA!" A loud and angry voice called out from nearby.

The amethyst eyed girl snapped her neck towards the shout. "Shoot!" She cursed before looking to Anto and grabbing his hand. "Please come with me!"

"_Wait wha—!?_" The mute was interrupted as he was suddenly jerked away and pulled by the girl who made them both run away. "_H-Hey! What's going on!?_"

"I need to get away from her!" Tiana shot a look back before Anto followed her look. Then he saw an older and scarier looking girl chasing madly after them.

"YOU!" She pointed with bloodlust towards Anto. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT ISN'T IT!? DIE!"

"_Wait what!? Where did that come from!?_" The confused male trainer mentally spoke out before he saw her screams get louder and she started running faster. "_OK, now I see your point!_"

The teenage boy was scared for his life and quickly shot past Tiana, grabbing her hand subconsciously as he led the run since he was the one most experienced in that department.

However, it just looked like Anto was going to miss out on that buffet.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**You know what the greatest sin of this fic is? 35 chapters in and only now I'm making a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure reference. I feel dirty for such sacrilege. (Also, I have finally returned to have my gym battles return at the fives! See this sixth badge is in 35 with only the fourth and fifth badge are no longer in zeroes and fives so far.)**

**This was my first six on six battle. How was it? Be honest, I'm still working on it and this might be a preview of things to come.**

**Also, I have to thank MangolimePie for letting me borrow his characters, Trinity, Victor, and Tiana to appear hear in Bizarre Misadventures. I have some fun ideas with them in mind. (They are from Flames of Revolution)**

**But seriously, poor Anto. I was hungry when I finished the first rough draft of the ending, so missing out on a buffet hurts me on a mental and physical and emotional level like the likes never seen before.**

**You know what also hurts me? Last Chapter, I had no actual reviews. (Cue Sad Music from the world's smallest Violin) I got PM's from some of my readers, and surprisingly a lot more Favorites and Follows last chapter, but no reviews. I'm thankful for that, but I don't know why no one spoke about last chapter. **

**Next time on Bizarre Misadventures, we meet a lot of familiar faces.**


	36. Ep 36: The New(ish) Girl

He really, really shouldn't be getting used to running so much. Granted, being able to run for long periods of time while still having energy is something of a sign of good health and physicality. However, Anto would have rather had gained this ability over actual practice and of his own choice rather than being forced to pick this up in his journey due to the many, many, many, _many_ situations that required him to be on the run or die.

"_H-Hey? You alright?_" He asked as he saw the girl sitting down on the ground gasping hard for breath.

"I-I… I'm… just… out of breath…" She panted hard with a blush on her face as she sat on the ground from utter exhaustion.

"_So, I think it's safe to say we lost that girl. Whoever she was. Why was she after you?_" The mute asked.

"G-Gimme… a break…" The girl spoke out again between gasps.

The mute felt a little uncomfortable and decided to check where they were exactly; it felt like he ran all the way to another city.

Anto looked over to a nearby sign that read Aspertia City. He knew that city in the map; he ran and dragged this girl two a city away!? Well thankfully Kryx could just Teleport them back, but wow. He's got some stamina on him.

The place looked rather peaceful, but he had to admit this place was chilly. He couldn't help but notice some people were staring at him and the girl, and he could have sworn they were all whispering mean thing about how he looked standing over a tired girl.

"_I'll be right back…_" Anto shyly spoke out as he left quickly. He was getting embarrassed from all the stares.

He didn't notice the girl look surprised and weakly call out to him to wait.

As he left, he noticed a young girl and a young boy walking up a stars to a higher platform in the city. He smiled at how excited they look and how the young but older looking boy was holding the little girl's hand and dragging up the stairs. If anything, they were acting like brother and sisters and they looked adorable.

It was then he realized that he really needed to heal his Pokémon since he was escaping with the girl. He only had Takezo and Sentinel conscious—speaking off, he did have an Antidote with him that he picked off from the ground during his travels.

Anto let out Sentinel's Dusk Ball, the undying Pokémon looked like he was dying… ironic.

"_How you feeling, Champ?_"

"**Like I'm dying! … Even though I'm supposed to be undead!**"

"Well I'm kind of far from a center, I got distracted, but here's an antidote."

"**Where'd you get that?**" Sentinel asked as he felt relief as he felt the soothing medicine of the antidote, but was still fairly weak from his battle with Roxie's Garbodor.

"_The ground. You would not believe the amount of things I find while walking around._ _I think I found a gold nugget once that Wes later took…. I kinda want that back now._" Anto deadpanned.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Jamie screamed. "You had a golden nugget!? Why did I have to pay for everyone's meals!?"

"Because you are a good person and I am not." Wes spoke out.

Benga swallowed his food while the two went on. "OMNOMNOMNOM."

* * *

Back with Anto.

"_I'm never getting it back, aren't I?_"

Anto was scowling before deciding to glance around for the Pokémon Center.

Sentinel then seemed to notice something and pointed behind Anto. "Hey why do those two look familiar?"

Anto turned his head, and noticed two adults walking tow where the two children went. However, what caught his attention was that they were wearing Team Plasma uniform.

"_Those are the guys that follow N around. Team Plasma right? Ugh… they hate me for accidentally putting one of their leaders in a body cast… twice._" Anto admitted with shame. It wasn't his fault the guy softened his landing twice. "_Still, what are they doing?_"

There was this peculiar feeling in Anto's stomach to go find out what they were doing. As he climbed up the stairs, he started hearing the sounds of battling and quickly brought out Takezo.

"**What is going on?**" Takezo asked as he was surprised he wasn't fully healed.

"_Not quite sure myself, but I hear fighting up ahead._" Anto quickly briefed Takezo before he, Sentinel, and the normal type climbed up the stairs to see the Team Plasma Members attacking a Trapinch and a Purrlion with their female Frillish and Dieno.

The trio stared in shock as the adults willing attacked the kids without mercy. The girl, tears starting to run on her face recalled the Purrlion—only for the female to step in and grab the ball mid return.

The boy tried to grab it back, but then the Dieno tackled the older but small boy in the chest.

It was then those team Plasma Grunts had made one of the greatest mistakes of their entire lives. They ticked off Anto and his Pokémon like never before.

"This is the First Pokémon we liberated!" The female of the Team Plasma Duo cried out in joy as they ran away from injuring a small child and left an even smaller girl crying for her brother.

The male looked obliviously happy. "Let's report this to the Sages—"

CRACK!

The male sage paused in utter shock as Anto appeared from nowhere and punched the woman straight in the jaw. The woman flew to the ground unconscious with a huge bruise on her face and the teen quickly picked up the Poké Ball containing Purlion and quickly ran towards the boy and the girl.

"_Hey kid?! You alright?_" The teen spoke out. He didn't quite know what came over him, the moment he saw the young boy attacked, he flew off ahead without Takezo and Sentinel. All that came over him was this insane drive to beat the crap out those monsters as he didn't even notice how hard he just punched a woman of all things. Manners be darned, they had that coming!

After taking the Poké Ball, he quickly ran towards the kids to see if they were alright.

"P-Purrlion…" The boy weakly spoke out, but he was too weak to notice that Anto was communicating to them telepathically.

"_Don't worry, you're friend is right here._" Anto spoke out as he gave the Pokémon back to the little girl who gasped in joy.

"T-Thank you, mister!" The girl said.

The boy seemingly looked towards Anto, a look of gratefulness in his eyes before he dropped unconscious.

"Hey! What is your problem!?" The man shouted angrily and with shock as he looked towards the young teen while caring for the woman who was out cold.

Anto's smile turned quickly into an angry frown as he turned back towards the male. "_My Problem? Did you even see what you just did to these two kids?_"

"We we're saving their Pokémon, you psychotic brat!" The man angrily yelled.

"_Does __this__ look like saving to you!?_" Anto motioned to the injured boy and crying girl he was standing in front of to protect.

"You will never understand and I don't want you to! Frillish, Dieno! Hurt him and take those Pokémon back!"

The two Pokémon charged right for Anto, but the young boy placed a hand back to the two children.

A shadow appeared over the Frillish's head as she looked up and was smacked hard by a dark empowered wooden blade. The Dieno looked to the side, but didn't see the Ghostly Skeleton appear right in front of his path with Dragon Claws unleashed.

"**Attacking the weak and stealing from them!? Have you no shame!?**" Takezo declared despite the male not being able to hear him.

The young girl looked at the Patrat and the Pokémon she never saw before stand right next to the older teen that helped her and her brother.

"Y-You! You're a Pokémon Trainer!?" The male shouted out as he pointed to those Pokémon.

"_Alright listen up you bas—jerk!_" Anto's eyes trailed to the little girl before he stopped himself from cussing out loud. "_Get your friend, get your Pokémon and get out of my sight!_"

The male started sweating, and looked to be snarling angrily.

"What happened?!"

Everyone looked towards the stairs were more as half a dozen more Team Plasma members came up and looked in shock at one of their own being knocked out cold. Each of them had Pokémon following after them.

"_Kid, get behind me…_" Anto spoke out as he kneeled over to carefully pick the boy up his back. Sentinel and Takezo carefully stood in front, but admittedly they were still a bit tired from Roxie's battle.

Anto started to sweat as the other team members were informed of what happened in that person's deluded version of what happened. It got worse when some of them recognized him as the person who injured "Lord Ghetsis".

"_Oh right that's his name. I keep forgetting._" Anto spoke as all of the team Plasma members and their back up Pokémon surrounded the boy and the children. Slowly they were backing into a corner, or the fence that looked off to the nice view.

"You'll pay dearly for your actions you—"

"_Uh uh uh! Language!_" Anto spoke out as he recalled the little girl hiding behind his leg. He focused his thoughts towards Sentinel. "_Think you can pull us into a Phantom Force?_"

"**A bit weak, but I can try. It won't last long though.**" The Ghost type spoke out.

Takezo and Sentinel prepared themselves. This was going to be tricky.

"HEY!"

Everyone turned back again to see the girl Anto came to town with was looking around the large group of people surrounding the teen and two kids.

"What are you doing!?" She yelled.

"Beating up an evil man! And saving Pokémon!" One of them angrily spoke out.

"_And he also cries himself to sleep every night because of how much of a disappointment he was to his family!_" Anto taunted in between.

"That's a lie!"

"_Keep telling yourself that. I'm sure people will believe you eventually._" Anto leered.

"Why you! That's it! Attack!"

Before anyone could react, the teenage girl Anto came with threw out a Poké Ball revealing a Belossom, "Belle, Petal Blizzard!"

"**Lala!**" The Bellossom cried out in an off tune before blinding the entire place with petals. Anto saw his chance and quickly told Sentinel to use his phantom force now and quickly picked up the smaller kid. The briefly phased through the group, making Anto appear next to the girl.

"_Come on! We're out numbered!_"

The girl looked shock. "Wait huh?! How'd you—wait! How are you still able to run!?" She cried out before she sighed, returned her Pokémon, and ran after him while the rest of Team Plasma were confused by the flurry of petals.

[Later]

"Your Pokémon are all healed up. Please come again." Nurse Joy spoke out as she gave back Anto's Pokémon.

"_Ahh man thanks! And um sorry for making you run. Again._" Anto take back his Pokémon as he looked towards the girl sitting on the bench.

Even though she didn't have a bag on her at first glance, the girl had a change of clothes on her. She still kept the cute white beret, but now she was wearing a long sleeved shirt white shirts under a pink short vest while still wearing the same skirt and long black pantyhose.

"It's fine. I just wasn't used to it." The girl spoke out before smiling politely.

A pretty girl smiling at him? Was his luck finally changing?

Wait, was the universe giving him a free bone? Why would it suddenly send him some good luck instead of bad luck? Wait! What if he was dead? He was dead wasn't he!? That was the only reason why a pretty girl was giving him a lot of attention wasn't it! Oh Arceus! He can't die now! … Again!? Did he even die a first time!? Does dying a second time count as an actual death or does that like nullify his first death in the first place, if he even did die—

"There he is!"

Anto looked behind him and saw the two kids, the older brother looking patched up and better. The little girl with Purrlion in her hands came running towards him "Thank you so much for saving us mister!"

"_I can't take all the credit. It was with the help off…_" The mute trailed off as he looked to the girl. He still didn't know her name did he?

"I'm Tiana, I never really got your name too."

"_Anto. And uhh, as you all can see, I speak right now through my mind._"

"WHOA." The little girl cooed with her eyes widening. "You can talk with your mind?!"

Anto put one of his hands behind his head bashfully. He explained to everyone that he had the ability to communicate to others, even Pokémon. The three were surprised, but the girl was super excited as she brought up her Purrlion up towards him.

"Can you hear what Purrlion says?"

Anto looked to the cat Pokémon who looked away. "**… Thanks for getting me back**." it softly said not to show weakness in its pride.

"Waaahhh!~" The little girl cooed and looked towards the cat Pokémon. "I understood that too! Whoa!"

"Mister, can all trainers do that?" The brother asked. However, the mute denied this and told him he had some unique circumstances behind that. It didn't stop the smaller boy into giving him a determined and idolizing look. "I-I wanna be strong like you mister! So that won't ever happen again!"

That gave Anto a wrong impression for some reason. "… _Hey kid? What's your name?_"

"I'm Hugh and this is my sister, Jill." The boy spoke up quickly.

"_Hugh huh? Want a little tip from a trainer in his own quest towards the Pokémon league?_"

"A-A tip!?" The boy looked wide eyed and paid a lot of attention to Anto as he knelt down to his level and gave a calm smile.

"_Being a good person can also mean being a good trainer._"

Everyone looked at him weirdly. "What does that mean?" Young Hugh asked.

"_Some adult Jargon you'll figure out later. Trust me it is good advice. And when you become a stronger trainer, wanna battle?_"

"Sure thing! Look out, I'm gonna be stronger than you!"

"_Atta boy, Hugh. But you and your sister better get home. I'm sure your parents would be worried about you two._"

"Oh right! Come on Jill! Good bye!" Hugh spoke out to the two teens.

"Bye Mr. Anto, bye Miss Tiana!" Jill cried out as she ran out of the center with her Purrlion.

At this moment Tiana walked up to the strange mute. "So what exactly did you mean by good person and good trainer?"

The amber eyed trainer let down his smile as he stared at the door. "_Hugh seemed angry at Team Plasma. What they did was wrong and cruel, but… I guess I didn't want him to be so obsessed with getting revenge, so I told him that being a good person would translate in being a good trainer since having a healthy relationship with others usually brings out the best in people._"

"And you choose that way to do it?"

"_I had to just think of it on the spot. I thought it was good advice._" Anto thought before realizing the strange situation he was in because of the girl in front of him."_By the way, who was that girl we were running away from a while back?_"

Tiana frowned and groaned as she recalled, "That," She paused before her face fell with a heavy sigh. "… Was my sister."

"_You're Sister!?_" Anto blanched the thought of meeting the angry woman did not bode well for the young teen, but that brought up something really strange. "_Wait then why were you running away from her?_"

At that the girl deflated even more. "She was being so… suffocating! I wanted some time away from her!" She shouted.

"_Oh so it's a sibling argument?_"

"It's more than just that! She-She always coddles me and treats me like I'm some fragile little girl, but I'm 13 years old and have participated in my share of battles too! I even have a full party of Pokémon, but she still treats me like I'm four! I want my own life!" She complained in a fit of rage before sighing and blushing. "I-I'm sorry you had to see that…"

"_No, trust me I get. I also get frustrated by things outside my control. But what can I do? But usually talking things out with someone makes you feel better from my experience._" Anto thought back to Takezo's talk recently.

"I-I do feel better… but I'm still angry about my sister."

"_I don't wanna be that guy, but you __are__ going to have to go back to her and have a proper talk with her, aren't you?_"

Tiana huffed. To Anto, she was kinda cute when she did that. "You're my age, why do you sound like an adult!?"

Anto recalled his Pokémon and frowned as he recalled the trouble they bring him almost every day. "_Because my Pokémon are immature enough for me for the rest of my life._"

"Huh?"

"_I guess being responsible for a lot of Pokémon mellowed me out. I'm starting to see why parents get proud of children._" He was so proud when he finally thought Ohko how to count up to ten. He almost shed a tear. Almost.

Then he actually cried when Ohko completely forgot the next day.

Though the day after he never forgot again.

It was an experience only a parent could understand. … Probably…

Tiana lit up at the mention of Anto's Pokémon. "Oh right them! I saw you and Roxie's battle! They were amazing! I've always wanted to meet them!"

To his surprise, Anto repeated what she had said in the form of a question. "_You want to meet them?_" The girl only nodded with excitement. "_Umm they're kinda… quirky…_"

"No; all the more reason why I want to meet them!" She said excitedly.

Anto was a little nervous, but he didn't really have the guts to say no, so he told her he would show them but outside in the Pokémon Center. He wasn't aware that there were people currently watching him and the girl.

As they got to the back of the Pokémon Center, Anto released all six of his current party members.

Tiana cooed and bent down to meet some of them. "Wow so these are your Pokémon?! They're a lot more colorful up close."

They all looked at the girl, and then looked at their Trainer. They looked back at the girl, then their trainer.

"**Congratulations Danger Damoiseau! You have acquired a Damsel in Distress! You are one step closer to being a hero! Now toss her off a building so you can catch her!**" Super Nut declared.

"_No! That's not how it works!_" Anto cried out.

"**Oh tight! Is this one of those mating things, Tak keeps talking about, boss?**" Ohko innocently spoke out.

Anto blushed furiously. "_No no no no! Guys! This is Tiana! A __friend__! Say hello!_"

They all said hello in varying degrees. Super Nut went on a heroic Monologue, Ohko just said hi, Sentinel just waved his claws, Kryx wanted to probe her, Lily also greeted her kindly, while Takezo was polite… though his smirk towards Anto annoyed the trainer to no end.

"W-Wow your Pokémon are really something," Tiana spoke out before looking towards Kryx. "Please don't probe me."

Anto blinked, he was sure that he wasn't allowing his powers to translate his Pokémon this time since he was kind of scared their characters would scare the girl away. So how did…

"_Why, you can also understand Pokémon?_" Anto asked in shock. He knew they were supposed to be rare, but he was running into a lot of people that could understand other Pokémon as well.

"Well uh yeah. You see my Sister is an Aura user, you know like those Lucario? But to a lesser extent and she taught me some Aura tricks as well. Mostly how to talk to my own Pokémon though."

"_That's still really cool though. I've heard about how aura can technically make someone super human. Is it true?_"

"… That depends on who it is and how much aura they have…" Tiana stood back up with a nervous look on her face as if she recalled a specific person. "I don't have a lot, so I just keep to some basics."

"**What about your Pokémon?**" Ohko asked. "**What they like?**"

Tiana visibly winced. "Umm, well… I love them all very dearly."

Anto blinked. "_Is something the matter?_"

"My Pokémon… aren't like yours."

"_What do you mean by that?_"

"They're kind of… off."

"**Of what?**" Kryx, Sentinel, and Ohko asked.

Tiana hesitantly got all six of her Pokémon. "Just promise me you won't laugh alright?"

"_I already saw your Bellossom. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about._" Anto spoke out before a sudden sense of unease came over him.

"Ahh alright. Come on out everyone." She spoke out hesitantly before throwing the spheres into the sky.

In a flash of light, six Pokémon came out. A Croconaw with a pirate hat and an eye patch, a Pupitar, a Linoone with a top hat, a Bellossom, a Granbull with a black wrestling mask on, and finally an Elekid wielding a wooden pirate sword wearing two eye patches over both his eyes.

The fastest to react was the Granbull as he pointed dramatically into the sky. "**The Fang accepts this challenge!**"

"_Wait whaAAAAAAAK?!_" Anto tried to say before he was tackled into the ground by the Fairy type and put into a choke hold.

"**You got nothing on me, punk! Cause the Fang's Number 1!**" The Granbull pulled harder.

"**Whoa guys! That dude's a number!**" Ohko sounded impressed as Anto started choking in pain.

Tiana shrieked and ran up to him with Pupitar close behind her. "No! No! Fang! He's not a wrestler! Do not Choke Slam him!" She panicked as she tried to get the purple fairy type off him.

"**I'm more surprised none of us are actually trying to help him.**" Lily spoke out as Tiana pried the wrestler off Anto.

Suddenly, the Linoone with a top hat came very close to Lily with a rose in his teeth and a glint of passion in his eyes. "**Ah ma dame! Comparerai-je votre beau visage à ce du jour d'un été ? Quand j'ai d'abord posé des yeux sur vous, j'ai été charmé par votre beauté!**" (Ah, my lady! Shall I compare your beautiful visage to that of a summer's day? When I first laid eyes on you, I was entranced by your beauty!)

Tiana looked over to the Linoone. "Rico! Arrêtez de flirter avec chaque nouvelle femelle que vous rencontrez!" (Rico! Stop flirting with every new female you meet!)

She spoke out in an exotic language—which Anto found insanely attractive despite him getting the air back into his lungs. Though for some reason, he thought he could understand her despite the language barrier?

The Linoone known as Rico turned back dramatically towards his master. "**Mais la Maîtresse, comment peut je pas admet la beauté d'art dont ce Arceus a sculpté pour capturer le coeur et les âmes d'hommes! Tis une honte et une faute si une femme n'est pas complimentée profondément de l'âme!**" (But Mistress, how can I not acknowledge the beauty of art that of which Arceus has sculpted to capture the heart and souls of men! Tis a shame and mistake if a woman is not complimented deeply from the soul!)

"**Great, I never thought there would be someone who is harder to understand than Kryx when she starts speaking like an alien, but here we are.**" Lily spoke out.

"**Wait he was talking? I thought he was having some kind of seizure!**" Kryx declared before pulling out a probe. "**I must probe his mind! HAAA!**" Kryx spoke out before Lily jumped into holding her from probing the mind of the Linoone.

"_Oh no not this again…_" Anto spoke up as he tried to get back up before he was tackled down by the Croconaw.

"**Argh landlubber! Gimme your booty or else I make ye walk the plank!**"

"_Why am I always being attacked by the crazy Pokémon!?_" Anto yelled out loud.

Tiana put Fang down near Super Nut and looked back towards Anto with Croconaw on top of him. "Oh Arceus! No Coco! Please stop pillaging everyone that looks rich to you!"

"**Avast! Quick first mate! The other Captain is trying to stop us!**" The Croconaw shouted to the Elekid with two eye patches and seemingly trying to feel around.

"**Right Cap'n! Distract plan go!**" The young Pokémon saluted before blindly throwing his wooden pirate sword at Sentinel.

"**Ow.**" The Delta Pokémon spoke out before picking up the wooden sword that bounced off his skull. "**Aww cool! Now I can totally be like Takezo!**"

"**Hey wait! That's mine give it back!**" Elekid shouted as he pointed at a different direction where Sentinel was.

"**Well maybe if you remove those eye patches and walk in my direction, I might be able to give this back.**" Sentinel said as he played around with the small wooden blade.

Ohko looked at him. "**I thought ya don't have eye balls, so how can ya see?**"

Sentinel paused as he truly didn't have eyes in his eyes sockets but could see just fine. "**That… is a good question. Hmmm…**" Both Sentinel and Ohko pondered about that as the Elekid wandered around blindly with his hands in front of him.

Tiana looked over to Elekid as she picked up Coco, her Croconaw. "El! I've told you, stop wearing two eye patches at the same time! It does not make you look like a cooler pirate!"

Meanwhile, The Masked Wrestler, Fang locked gaze with the Masked Hero, Super Nut.

"**What you think you can take on The Fang!? Imma Crush you in The Ring little man!**" The Granbull flexed his muscles as hard as he could.

"**You can never crush Justice! For I, Super Nut, fight for the innocent!**" Then the two started a monologuing battle against each other. Both of them did more talking about fighting than _actually_ fighting.

Bellossom, who was briefly known as Belle if Anto recalled, looked around. "**Oh gosh! An audience! It's time for me to sing! LAAAAAA~**" She screamed off tune.

Takezo looked at the chaos unfolding around him and looked over to the Pupitar standing next to him.

"**Hello.**"

"**Oh, hey,**" The Pupitar spoke out as he stepped away from Linoone running away from Kryx who was being chased by Lily. "**Umm sorry about my friends. My name is Pit.**"

"**And I am known as Takezo, but it is fine. It's nice to know that there are people who have the same problem as we do.**"

Pupitar and Takezo looked back as Tiana and Anto struggled to make Coco let go of Anto's collar.

"**I suppose you're right.**" The rock and dark type said as chaos ensued around them with Belle's horrible off key singing.

However, for one second Takezo felt something off and looked behind him. He thought he sensed… perhaps it's better to tell Anto later.

"Oh? How odd, you would never expect one of the most common Pokémon in Unova to be so sharp."

[Later…]

Tiana bowed her head in shame. "I am _so_ sorry!" She shouted as the two were back in the Pokémon center.

"_It's fine really._" Anto really should have seen this coming. He thought that now that he had six Pokémon, the chances of him encountering weird Pokémon would stop—how naïve of him to think that.

"No, I wasn't expecting my Pokémon to act like that! I am so sorry for that." Tiana called out. "Aww I knew I shouldn't have shown you them!" she wined before burying her face.

"_No seriously, it's fine Tiana, I have some weird Pokémon as well._"

"They're not weird, they're cool. I saw how your Patrat took on that Scolipede, how your Ferrothorn took on all those super effective hits one after the other. You're Pokémon are amazing while mine? It's no wonder my sister coddles me with Pokémon like that." She sighed as she sat on the couch.

Anto laughed and sat down next to her. "_Do you wanna know how Takezo and I first met?_" He asked before regaling about each individual story of how he met each and every one of his Pokémon. Each story became stranger and stranger than the last until Anto finished with Super Nut grabbing him and shooting them both off like a catapult.

Tiana laughed a few times as Anto explained some of the funnier parts, while gasped at some of the surprising parts, but she was amazed at how weird their stories were.

"_My Pokémon are the strangest people I ever met. But I've grown so used to them that I think no other Pokémon fit me better than these six. Your Pokémon are wonderful Tiana, just like you. So just believe in them, and they'll believe in you._" Anto smiled sweetly.

This caused Tiana to blush and glance away to the floor. To be honest, not even her sister said such nice things about her Pokémon. But here, for the first time ever, she had someone say that her Pokémon were nice very sincerely? This was a nice new feeling.

If Takezo was still out, he would be shouting that Anto does have 'game' despite his shy nature.

"Thank you Anto…"

The mute stood up. "_Now umm, I kind of gotta go back to Virbank City. My friends gotta be worried about me._"

[What said "Friends" were doing…]

"There are you happy? I'm treating us to go see a movie for the heavy breakfast you let us have." Wes spoke out as he, Benga, and Jamie were in a screening at Poké Stars Studio.

"Oh my gosh! I love this movie!" Jamie excitedly spoke out as she ate out from a bag of popcorn.

"Yeah nothing like a movie after a hard concert, right guys?!" Roxie spoke out to her band members before the entire arena told them to be quiet.

"Me too!" Benga said as he started eating some hot dogs. "OMNOMNOMNOM."

[Back with Anto.]

Ignoring this feeling that he was completely missing out on something fun, Anto continued on. "_So I think I'm going to go back now._"

Tiana's eyes snapped open. "W-Wait! Please don't go yet! I'm not ready to face my sister."

Anto thought back and thinking about how teleporting back there without Tiana might actually get him killed by her older sister.

"_Oh right. She won't actually kill me if I showed up without you, right?_"

Tiana looked away nervously. "My sister… worked with some shady people in the past…"

Oh Arceus! Who did he get tangled up with!?

"Don't worry! My sister is still one of the nicest people I know!" The amethyst eyed girl poked her fingers together. "I was just hoping that we could wait a little for her to cool off."

"_That sounds like a good idea._" Anto spoke out automatically before his stomach started grumbling. "_Oh right, I haven't eaten yet…_"

"I could treat you to something. It's the least I can do for having you going through my Pokémon."

"_Really? Thank you!_"

As the two went out, they didn't notice a group of people spying on them in the distance.

"There he is! … And is he on a date? … Man that girl is waayyy out of his league."

"That's not the point! He's vulnerable and it's possible for us to capture him and bring him to the boss. Don't mess this up you two."

[Later…]

You wouldn't believe it, but Anto was talking and enjoying himself in a seafood restaurant with a girl. Alone. With. Her. If he didn't know any better, he would say this is his first date… that he can recall. Did he have a girlfriend before this? Wait he died, did that mean they broke up? Was she also hot as Tiana? OK Anto, stop thinking about that and focus on the conversation.

"_So that's how you caught Rico?_"

"Yeah, all those French language classes really paid off. Though I must have sounded really stupid saying all that."

"_No no! You were really,_" Hot is the word Anto almost said. "_Fine! I-I mean you were alright not like fine as in 'fine' you know?! Wait no! Y-you weren't mediocre at all! I think French sounds cool and you made it sound cool! Just as cool as you letting your Pokémon keep you bag pack so you can keep your stuff in a Poké Ball!_" Anto stuttered as he tried to find the right words.

Tiana giggled—oh Arceus she sounded melodious, or was it just Puberty kicking in? Dang it, Anto, keep it together man! You are just enjoying lunch, or breakfast, or brunch with a really pretty girl on a not-date! Stop letting your heart beat so fast!

"Excuse—"

"_Yes!_" Anto turned around too quickly before realizing he used his telepathic voice on a normal person. He quickly recalled that he could technically puppet his mouth to make it sound like he could talk normally, so he did so again and mouthed out, "_Yes?_"

There were two people standing in front of him with a brochure on a spa. "Sorry for interrupting your date, but would you be interested in a free trip to Kanto?"

"Kanto? I heard that place was really lovely." Tiana spoke out.

However, Anto stared hard at the two approaching him. Then his eyes widened in realization before pointing at the two accusingly. "_It's you two! Team Rocket! Butch and whatever that other name was!_"

"You are the only kid that bothers to say my name right."/ "It's Cassidy, you brat!" The two spoke out at the same time.

Cassidy shook her head. "Wait a sec! How'd you know it was us?!"

"_You're just wearing some glasses and new earrings! You did nothing to hide your face or hair color! Only idiots would believe that would work and even bigger idiots would fall for something like that!_"

All around the world, certain people sneezed at the same exact time. These people were all previous and current traveling companions to Ash Ketchum, the trainer himself, and a group of Team Rocket Grunts with a talking Meowth.

Back in Unova, Tiana looked shockingly at the two. "They're Team Rocket!?"

"Oh for the love of…" A different woman, a worker here in the café the two were eating at stepped in. She looked at the two. "I can't believe you two got caught! Just hurry it up with this next part will you?"

"_What are you ta…lking… ab…_" Anto wearily said before he fell face first into the table.

"Anto!?" Tiana yelled before the third woman dropped a smoke pellet that exploded around the café.

Tiana, along with the rest of the people in the café, ran out coughing up a storm. The girl looked around, but couldn't see where the three had went—

The girl from Kalos stopped as she saw a strange figure down the road. He was hard to miss wearing such a large black full body cloak, but he was standing right next to an alley way and pointing in that direction. A few more seconds passed before the figure walked into the alleyway and out of her sight.

The trainer felt confused, what was that? Was that person… helping her? Seeing no other clue, Tiana raced after the figure, wondering what Team Rocket, a criminal organization in Kanto would want with Anto.

Team Rocket placed Anto in a cell in Agent Domino's personal plane before handling the boy's party to Cassidy and Butch.

"Cassidy, push in the coordinates for Kanto. Bull, put this kid's Pokémon away."

"Yes mam." They both said before Butch futility tried to correct his name.

Agent Domino looked towards their prisoner when suddenly their ship shook violently.

"What was that!?" The blonde agent cried out.

Cassidy quickly came back in. "Mam! That girl has somehow found is and is bombarding our ship from leaving!"

"What!? You two, take her out!"

To Tiana, she had a lot of questions in her mind relating to the mysterious stranger that made sure to point her in this direction, but right now she didn't care. The huge R logo was a dead giveaway this was the infamous Team Rocket. If it wasn't for the thick forests, no one would have noticed them.

She and her Pokémon were attacking and wrecking the engines so as not to let the plane fly. At this moment, Cassidy and Butch came out with a dozen or so Pokémon.

Tiana pointed to Rico. "Rico, utilisez "ventre" suivie dans "tambour vitesse extrême"!" (Rico, use Belly Drum followed by Extreme Speed!)

The Linoone hurt itself hard in the chest before vanishing in a blur and body checking several Pokémon with the power of a locomotive.

"Belle! Give him cover, Petal Blizzard!" The Grass type danced around, before unleashing a blinding flurry of fast moving petals. Tiana acted fast, commanding Pit and Coco to perform Dragon Dance before the petals scattered, allowing them to assist Rico.

The Charizard burned the petals, charging right for the Bellosom until Fang used take Down on the Charizard and into a Play Rough attack. While the type was resistant, Fang was able to put the fire and flying type into a choke hold.

Hypno came in and aimed right for an Elekid nearby… but he was wearing two eye patches, so his Hypnosis did nothing.

El then punched him in the jaw and was proud he actually hit the right target this time.

Tiana was glad she was keeping up the offensive up.

What was that near her—

"Tell your Pokémon to stop, or else, you'll know exactly what 300 kilo volts will do to the human brain." Agent Domino spoke out as she grabbed Tiana by the neck and placed the shock stick near her face.

All her Pokémon stopped fighting as soon as they saw (El actually had to remove his eye patches) Their trainer caught by the third member.

"Did you really think you could just come in and take on Team Rocket girl?" The blonde Rocket agent spoke out.

"What do you want with my friend?!" Tiana cried out.

"Your boyfriend has caught our attention ever since Nimbasa City. That's all you need to know."

"He is not my boyfriend—"She shut up when Domino applied more pressure to her weapon.

"Now then, Bilch, Cassidy! Take down her Pokémon and bring them with us! That'll teach those who mess with Team Rokcet."

"N-No!" Tiana cried as her Pokémon grouped up together and were attacked from all sides.

"**Never Fear! Super Nut is here!**" Suddenly, a blur shot out of the ship, revealing Anto's Ferorthorn coming right in the middle of Tiana's Pokémon and activating Protect to prevent all attacks from harming them.

"What the!?" Butch and Cassidy looked back towards the ship before they backed away from Sentinel and Ohko attacking the spot they were previously.

"_Tiana!? Are you alright!?_" The boy spoke out before he ran out of the ship with Lily.

"The heck!? How did you escape your cell!?" Domino cried out in surprise. What's more surprising was that the drug Anto swallowed was supposed to last hours, not minutes.

"_I was in a cell? But the doors were left wide open._" Anto looked surprised as he simply mentioned.

Domino's eyes went wide with surprise. "What!? No they weren't, I locked them myself!" Those cells were not open when she last left him, did someone carelessly open the cell?!

The mute raised a brow. "_Then someone done goofed._"

"Belch!" Domino looked to the male.

"My name is Butch and there's no way I let that happen!"

Domino gritted her teeth. "Still we have a hostage! Get back in your cell, or I shock your girlfriend's pretty little head!"

Anto blushed. "_S-She's not my girlfriend!_" He denied quickly.

Lily looked at him incredulously. "**Why are you focusing on that!?**"

The mute coughed while he walked towards where Sentinel and Ohko were. "_I had a feeling something might have been up. Psychic types are really awesome._"

Domino wondered what the boy meant until she realized that only four of his Pokémon were out instead of six. She quickly turned around—

Bam!

Domino staggered and let Tiana go as Kryx swooped in and teleported Tiana right beside Anto.

The mute asked the girl if she was alright before the female trainer noticed that Takezo and Kryx were originally behind Domino and that the normal type had just bashed Domino in the head.

"_With the tables turned, what do you say we end this?_" Anto asked as he looked back to Tiana. The girl returned the look with a smile.

They both looked towards the battlefield where Super Nut let down his force field after the attacks.

"_Kryx, Lily, make them reach for the sky!_"

Cassidy and Butch quickly felt something int the ground and noticed that they were stepping on a pile of leaves they never noticed before and were also under all of their Pokémon. Suddenly, all of the lives shined brightly before lifting them and their Pokémon high into the sky and trap within a crushed pile of magically and psychically held leaves.

"Everyone, let it rip!" Tiana called out as while they were in the sky, Anto and Tiana's Pokémon unleashed a huge combination of ranged attacks on the gathered target and made it explode.

"Dang it! This is usually Jesse and James' thing!" Cassidy complained as they were trailing towards the skies.

"The worst part is that we can't go back without the kid!" Butch cried out.

"So for now it looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" The two screamed as they all got shot out of sight.

"Umm do you think they'll be alright? We kinda did launch them up high." Tiana spoke out.

"_Something tells me they'll survive. I mean they have before,_" Anto spoke before looking around. "_Now what about the third… she's gone!?_" Everyone looked around for the third Team Rocket member but she was nowhere in sight.

"It looks like she escaped."

"_Well she's not taking the plane that's for sure. I had Kryx damage all the systems and let her take all the tech from it as she wanted. I doubt you could get this thing to even power up any more._" Anto pointed his thumb back at the ship. "_But Tiana, how did you find me?_"

"I just... followed this weird guy…" Tiana said as she recalled the strange man.

"_Weird guy?_"

"He was wearing a full body cloak and hood so I couldn't… wait… thinking back… I might have noticed blonde hair?"

A little ways away, Domino was retreating from the bad situation. Everything was going so fine, what could have possibly gone wrong!?

She was so busy running and plotting her next attempt to catch Anto that she didn't notice and bumped into a taller man. She bounced off and fell into the ground. "Hey watch it!?" She screamed before she realized in horror who she bumped into.

She recognized that uniform all too well.

"A Pokémon Ranger!?" The woman said as the tall blonde man with blue eyes looked down on her that almost looked… empty. "Hey wait a sec, I've seen your files… your that Ranger Jack during the Manaphy Incident in Hoenn aren't you?"

"You. You tried to take the Host away from Unova, away from his great destiny. Had I not intervened and opened his cell, our dreary cycle would have continued…" The ranger spoke out with a strangely lifeless tone.

"Wait, you opened that cell!? The heck?" Domino spoke out before she stood back up and slowly backed away. However, someone suddenly grabbed her hands like vice grips and did not let go. A smaller boy with brown hair and the same lifeless look in his eyes was holding her in place. This boy was also wearing a ranger Uniform.

"The Host must complete his task. He must end this false cycle with true destruction." The two rangers spoke out at the same exact time.

"W-What the heck are you on about!? Let me go!" Domino spoke out as she tried stepping on the Ranger's foot. However, no matter how deep her heels dug in, or seeing blood starting to come out, the ranger holding her did not flinch, like some kind of dark puppet. Her senses were going haywire, something was horribly wrong.

"You who threaten the truth from revealing itself…" The both chanted in unison while Jack slowly brought up a glowing right arm with pale purple light. "Behold the lies you have come to believe."

"St-Stop! Seriously what are you doing!? STOP STOOPPPP!? AAAHAHHHHHHH!?"

[… Time Passes… (Mid Afternoon)]

After telling the police about the Team Rocket Ship, Anto and Tiana stood at in front of the Aspertia City Pokémon Center. Kryx was floating around doing something to a strange glowing cube.

"_Ready to go back now?_" Anto asked.

"I'm feeling a lot better now. My sister does get on my nerves and she does have a point, but now I can finally bring out the best in my Pokémon and show her I can take care of myself."

"_Ok then, Kryx are you ready? Teleport us back to Virbank City!_"

"**You got it fellow Scientist!**" Kryx spoke out as she floated between Tiana and Anto and held both of their hands before glowing and vanishing in an instant.

In an instant, Anto found himself back at the familiar room of the Pokémon Center in Virbank City.

"_Aahh, finally I'm back…_" The mute spoke out before he noticed Kryx rapidly looking at him and seemingly using the cube to jot notes down and record things. "_Kryx, what are you doing?_"

"**Research!**" She said a little too excitedly, even for her.

Anto then realized something. If Kryx was there floating right in front of him… then who was still holding his hand?

He looked down and saw that his hand was holding Tiana's (soft) hand.

Before he could react, he heard a familiar voice.

"So that's where he went. Wow Anto, I didn't know you had it in you." Wes spoke out as Benga, White, and Jamie stared at shock that Anto was holding hands with a pretty girl.

A blush came from the face of the two teens. "_W—Wait!_"

"YOU!"

Before the mute could explain, he quickly let go of Tiana's hands and looked behind him to see Tiana's older sister looking like evil incarnate with a bunch of really powerful and intimidating Pokémon surrounding her.

"I SAW THAT YOU LITTLE PUNK! KILL HIM!" Tiana's sister cried out.

"_Sugar Honey Iced Tea!_" Anto ran for dear life despite Tiana's best efforts to call on her sister, Trinity.

As chaos descended, Kryx continually put on notes on her floating chronicler. "**This experiment is yielding more results than I could ever imagine! Yay for Science!**"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Not bad for your first (not)date, huh Anto? I figured I have to throw you a bone every once in a while.**

***Explosions and bloodthirsty screams for Anto's bones in the distance***

**Hmm… there could be a slight, tiny, little, super small, and microscopic chance that I could probably be too hard on the boy. Maybe.  
**

**But don't worry boy, next we head towards your seventh badge! And Familiar face is returning soon!**

**Speaking of familiar faces, Jack and Keith are back after almost 30 chapters! And something looks horribly wrong with them. What could this Truth and Cycle things could they be talking about?**

**One little note that I thought would be fun would be how Tiana carries objects with her without a bag. Since Pokémon can bring items with them into their Poké Balls, Tiana gives her Bellossom her bag pack with all her clothes and things so when she brings out her Pokémon, she can bring out her items as well since she doesn't need to carry them around a lot. She told Anto this over lunch and he's going to have a little fun with Kryx upgrading one of his own empty Poké Ball for a hammer space.**

**But the final stretch of the Unova Saga can be seen! If you thought things were crazy now? Oh, I have not begin to tell you how deep this rabbit hole goes!**

**Look out Pokémon Universe, Anto is here to knock the socks off you!**

**(Thanks again for MangoLimePie's permission to use some of his characters. If you are curious, you can go to his account and read his Pokémon work there.)**

**Thanks for reading.**


	37. Ep 37: Movie Nerds

**{Edit: Author Notes}**

**Just a small note to tell you. There's a slightly important Author notes at the bottom. Enjoy the story!**

[From the perspective of a bad guy.]

I am going to be honest with you—which is something of something really strange since I, a hacker and an assassin, am trying to tell you that I fell in love.

Weird huh? Pay me enough money and I can plant a bomb in a family's minivan in Christmas as they travel to grampa's house while I'm back at home eating ice cream and watching a Christmas comedy movie as the money gets secretly deposited to a fake bank account I can empty out later—so yeah. We can all admit that I can easily be one of these bad guys.

You could blame my past, I lived in a bad place and to live, you had to be bad or end up having your skeleton dry up and turn to dust in the barren dessert that even Pokémon couldn't live in. But let's go back to where I told you that I, a heartless bastard, fell in love.

Some big shot wanted some random yahoo to really, really feel the heat. He hired me to make sure that this person's life got ruined while he hired a bounty hunter to sell off his Pokémon like slaves. Some might call it overkill, but then with blood money by the bucket loads, you end up not really caring. There was this girl, she looked hella stiff but dam she had a really nice body. She gave off a lot of intimating glares and had the strength of a Machamp. I admit my attraction to her was opening lust, and my fires did not die when I found out we were paired together to get this poor sap.

Long story short, we bonded over the little assignment. The woman didn't say a single word to me despite my advances—probably shouldn't have used cartoons as opening conversation topics. I knew movies were a better topic to start off with! But eventually, taking a stab to the chest meant for her made her at least say one word to me.

And no, it wasn't 'Thanks'. It was 'Fool'.

Arceus dam that was hot.

I'm not ashamed to say that I stalked her digitally and kept track of her whereabouts, trying to pair up with her as many times as I could no matter where she went. From mild indifference, she then became more annoyed with me to the point she kicked me off her new plane once. Still somehow, after a little digging around, I found out who she was and saw she was just like those other amazing sob stories you hear if you look hard enough.

Which was great! Cause I had one of those crappy sob stories too! According to fiction, we would get along fine!

Looking back, maybe there was a possibility that TV and media weren't always right on romance in real life.

It took years, but heck we finally had really hot make out sessions—wink—that totally had this love-hate thing going on.

Feisty! Me likey!

Then something happened that I never thought would happen.

… I became a dad.

I guess you could call Dads my kryptonite and all. My crappy old man was the only one who gave a Rattata's behind about me. He wasn't always sober, but heck at least he tried.

So here I was, somehow holding onto a new baby boy that for some reason she didn't want to abort when she could have that entire year carrying this little… brat… and then it hit me. Two people who haven't even batted an eye in staining their hands in blood in taking lives have just given life to a new kid to the world.

Irony's a witch.

And Karma is a freaking sadist.

I ended up… worrying for the kid, actually thinking about his future and it scared me—him being anything like us scum bag parents. After years of shutting down my emotions, how the heck did a crying little sack of flesh with skin so wrinkled, bald, and red suddenly make me shiver in cold sweat?

Killing? That was easy.

Raising a kid? Heck no!

Things kind of got worse after that. My lady friend and I shared different opinions about the kid. She was… dang… no really dang… she was really hurt from what happened to her. In a way, she kinda wanted to raise our kid under her wing.

Me? I always thought I had a special place reserved down below where I would be singed for eternity as my punishment. I sure as heck didn't think my punishment would be that I actually start to regain my empathy after throwing it all away.

I wanted out. Who knows? Maybe trying an actual family thing wouldn't have been such a bad idea. A wedding sounded tedious as freak—unless it was one of those crazy Greek Weddings I've heard about. I could totally make it so that we have Greek blood in our papers. We could totally pretend to be a snobbish rich family and look down on every other family member while at night we vandalize their house and blame it on the gangs and no one would question us because they'd think we were rich snobs who wouldn't lift a finger to serve themselves.

She thought I was being crazy, crazier than usual.

Things got heated… and no, sadly not in the fun way.

Eventually, I just left with our kid. Thought I would try my hand at the domestic life after all.

Never really saw the girl afterward, but spending time with my son, I realized something…

I never was brave enough to ask or even drag her along with me to this type of life with our son. I never was brave enough to try and tell her that she could live a strangely happy life with a murderer like me and just give up all this black market business.

I ain't no hero.

… I guess what they say is true: bad guys never win.

Well, looks like I'm placing my gamble on you, kid. Maybe one day you can do what I couldn't and be a good guy?

Save your dumb, stupid, evil parents won't you?

[Before The Final Stand]

If you didn't know any better, with how fast people were moving and placing reinforced steel objects over the ruins, you would imagine that these people were arming themselves for war.

No… they were arming themselves for something _much_ worse.

In the middle of a War Room, a powerful man walked in to three people setting up their location. "Are we ready?"

They all showed their respect to the man, but one then asked, "Yes we are, Boss, but not to sound ungrateful, why are you here as well? Isn't it dangerous?"

"It became dangerous when we were unable to capture Subject 5 at the first attempts. According to the files we viewed over, he is entering the League by collecting badges. And it's more than likely that among those badges, he's going for the Icirrus City one. May I remind you what exactly is in Icirrus City that we absolutely cannot let him anywhere near?"

"I-I know sir, but I just wasn't expecting you to join in on the fray."

"Actually Warden, it is literally my destiny to always stand in _their_ way. … A bloodline dedicated to fighting the impossible… The point is if Subject 5 comes anywhere near the Ruins while he has the Seed then everything we have strove to protect for these past 10,000 years will burn and die horribly."

[Back with the group…]

"Are you sure you're alright?" Jamie asked as she, White, Wes, and Anto were heading back towards the Virbank City Airport at night so that Miles, the grandfather of the current Mistralton City Gymleader, could bring them towards the next City before it gets too late.

Jamie was asking if the mute was alright because just later this afternoon, he was chased by a former high contender in the Kalos League a year back named Trinity for 'defiling' her younger sister. Needless to say, the young boy ran away like a scared little creature being hunted down by vicious prey. It wasn't until, her companion and current boyfriend, Victor, another Kalos League participant, came in and calmed her down from murdering someone in broad daylight.

It was a traumatizing experience for the boy, adding on to the many things that traumatized him across this adventure. Though strangely enough, this was the third time an older scary female chased after him. The others being Valarie and that Strange Fake Team Plasma Woman.

After separating from, the trainers from Kalos, the four prepared for their flight towards Icirrus City.

However…

"I've never seen much ice before. Can't wait to make a snowman!" Benga spoke out as he dragged along a bag with them.

"_Benga, why are you coming with us?_" Anto asked with confusion.

"Well, you said it yourself, you have to get into the league! And I'm here to help you with that! You're going to be training as I did and my father before me and his father before him!" Anto was surprised and shocked that Benga would declare that so suddenly.

"_Train like the Unova Champion? What exactly did he do?_" The mute asked curiously.

The red haired teen smiled. "Don't worry, it's nothing too strenuous."

"_Oh joy._"

"Dibs on the window seat!" Benga called out.

[Later]

Icirrus City was a lot chillier than he imagined which he should have seen coming due to the fact that it's named after ice, it lives near a wetlands area, and the gym leader there uses ice type Pokémon. Anto and the others were getting themselves comfortable in the Pokémon Center they just arrived in.

"Hmm… You know I could use an ice or water type Pokémon while I'm here." Benga noted to himself while he was looking out the window. "I am known for accidentally burning things down."

"_That wouldn't sound too bad. I could come with since I heard there were wetlands known as the Moor of Icirrus where a lot of water, bug, and ground Pokémon could be found. Maybe I can get in some training there._" Anto thought.

"Oh yeah! I can definitely make sure you can start your training there! Come on let's go!" Benga excitedly spoke out before running towards the main door.

However, the door opened up before Benga got close and to the group's surprise, Brycen, the gym leader of this town had just entered into the Pokémon Center.

Benga stopped in his tracks as his eyes widened. He gave out a big smile as he then bowed respectfully at the man. "Mr. Brycen! Good to see you again!"

"Benga?" The ice gym leader showed surprise. "I'm surprised to see you out of Floccesy Town."

The flame headed teen rose back up with a smile and pointed at Anto. "I'm helping out a friend in his training. He's going to challenge you later!"

A gentle smile appeared on the masked man's face as he answered. "Is that… so…?" His voice trailed off as he followed Benga pointing towards Anto. "You?"

Anto blinked in surprised before he looked around making everyone look at him. The mute pointed at himself in confusion as Brycen walked closer towards them.

"I know you, Clay had spoken about you," Brycen spoke out seriously. "Are you the telepathic trainer?"

The boy slowly nodded. "_Yes, but I'm surprised that you talked to Clay._"

The ice type gym leader's face turned somewhat grim. "A lot has happened in the past week. … Actually, the timing now couldn't be more perfect."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jamie asked.

"It's a long story, but Anto here has earned the respect of many other Gym leaders and right now we have a problem concerning Team Plasma."

"Those weirdoes?" Wes asked as he recalled those strangers with the strange medieval look.

Brycen looked at them with curiosity. "So you didn't know at all? Perhaps Clay thought just one trainer would be enough, but now? … I think it's time I caught you up to speed."

[In the skies above: A Monologue]

Hunter J stood in front of her cell of one of her most recent Bounties, Yellow of Viridian Forrest. One of the few people in this world said to have the ability to heal Pokémon and understand them naturally. A hero some called her and her friends.

_Oh come on, can't we bad guys play hero every once in a while?_

She briefly recalled that most notable trainers under Professor Oak's care usually had a color as a name. If the hero, Gold from Johto, were in place of this girl would it be ironic that he turned into his name? Then again, she recalled the records showing that Yellow and several other heroes had been once turned to stone.

"It must feel frustrating doesn't it? The fact that you are once more frozen over by strange circumstances?" She asked impassionate like as she looked on the still face of surprise. "Though it appears that unlike the time you were stone, right now you are very much conscious. That makes you all the more dangerous."

A one sided conversation perhaps? She would admit that she was sounding dangerously close to a Saturday morning cartoon villain, monologuing towards someone who she clearly had the upper hand to. However, she knew to never underestimate the heroes and their friends, especially since that among them were two of the boys that stopped her before. The last thing she needed was to have victory snatched from her hands by some dues ex machina.

"I wonder what exactly my employer wants with you? He only gave me money to capture you then to head towards Unova. Strangely enough, my next employer also was from Unova. Even without my gut feeling, there was obviously some kind of coincidence to that, but I don't care." She spoke out more information than necessary ever towards a captive. Why? What compelled her to open up now of all times?

_So that's your decision huh? Well that's a shame. … A real darn shame…_

She walked around the floating platform with a force field bubble around the frozen statue. "By now your little group of heroes are probably on their way to save you. It's what they do apparently. But you don't have to worry, you won't get hurt. Much." A grin slipped into her features, making those boys pay one way or would be quite the catharsis.

Hunter J had a flash back, her newest target and a picture of him with three other people. However, for once she did not carefully study her newest prey.

"I find it odd how a bunch of kids can undo the works of organizations and ambitious men all over the world. And it's done over and over again, and I was one of them. What is it about the next generation that brings out those types of trainers? What makes people like you rise every time someone's power rises?"

_So what's your name anyway? I know it's not just J. It's gotta be a code name or something._

It finally dawned on her why she was here, talking aimlessly towards one of her prisoners and not preparing more recon on the boy she was sent to capture.

She was anxious. Strange as it was, after coldly squashing any form of sympathy that prevented her from doing her job, she felt anxious with this target for the first time since even her very first bounty—Arceus that was almost a life time ago by now.

With that, she left the prisoner room, commanding the guards outside to double their patrol but stay a respectable distance away from the prisoner. Getting sloppy here would be catastrophic.

[Back in Unova]

"All those Gymleaders… gone?" Jamie asked in shock as they all stared at the Gym leader in utter surprise.

"Team Plasma played us. Their Ambition is to resurrect one of the legendary Dragons of Unova."

White put a palm to her face and muttered, "Sapphire was so right." before she realized something. "Where is Black right now?" She asked worriedly.

"I gave him some directions to train his Pokémon. He still should be training right now. But now the focus is back to you Anto. What will you do with this information?"

Everyone looked to the young mute as he looked deep in thought and rather overwhelmed by this new revelation. He did recall Aspertia City where he saved Jill and Hugh's Pokémon, but he thought it was just one part of Team Plasma since N was in charge of most of them. But he never thought Team Plasma was capable of something like this.

It was actually a full minute before Anto asked if he could have time to think about this, letting everyone give him some space before Brycen explaining that he will be waiting for him in the gym. The mute stood up and told them he would be out for a walk, and despite knowing his poor luck, he really did need to clear his head for a second.

So here he was, walking around Icirrus City with his head pointed down on the pavement as he felt the chilly air.

Getting to the league, saving Unova, surviving a secret organization, and finding out his past… there was a lot of things he admitted that really complicated his life. And it was starting to get really overwhelming.

"_I am way in over my head aren't I?_" The boy sighed dejectedly before he continued walking to think about what he should do.

Perhaps he should challenge Brycen already? That would cut down time and allow him an easier time to get to the league since that was also the goal of Team Plasma somehow, but then Black was training right now in order to challenge Brycen, should he be doing the same thing instead of moping around so that he could become strong enough to help the gym leaders out? It was so horrible to hear that all the other Gym Leaders got beaten and captured by Team Plasma, especially after he met all of them and befriended them briefly and it also scared him somewhat that they could overpower such powerful trainers with Legendary Pokémon.

"Poliwag, Bubble!"

"Surskit, dodge and use Quick Attack!"

The 14 year old turned his head towards two young boys in a Pokémon battle. They looked too young to be official trainers, but it looked like the two boys were really into the battle. Anto found himself watching the two, as the Poliwag got hit by the Quick Attack, but then countered with Tackle. The two boys were screaming out attacks as they saw fit while the Pokémon looked like they really wanted to win for their friend.

It was then Anto realized something strange: he was smiling at them. There was just something fun about Pokémon, wasn't there?

… Hold on a second. Fun?

(_Stop thinking so much! Being Pokémon is supposed to be fun!_)

He did say that didn't he? It wasn't even that long ago… and if N really is doing this…

Man, he sure was eating his own words now wasn't he?

… Or was he still right about them?

Anto inhaled deeply. He knew what to do, but he still wondered how to handle Brycen's challenge? He did want to train, but he also knew he was pressed for time with everything else…

Dang! If only the world could take its sweet time in being destroyed, but nnooo, it was always 'running out of time' to them. Inconsiderate planet, you get threatened to destruction almost every year! You'd think by now people would have learned from this from _all the other times_ the world was threatened to near extinction.

The black haired boy looked back towards the kids who were now cuddling their Pokémon after an apparent draw from both Pokémon slamming into each other. They both started running towards the Pokémon Center and then another idea came out from watching the kids leave.

He needed to get to Wes and Benga as quick as possible.

[Later]

Brycen could recall when he was depressed and hurt, Alder came up to him and shared that being with other and Pokémon can make one stronger. He kept those words etched to his heart and lived by those words of his friend and mentor figure.

It felt good to recall those uplifting times, especially when things look so dire for Unova considering Team Plasma and those mysterious terrorists in Nimbasa City. There was just this unsettling feeling he had as he waited in this gym that Unova would be seeing dark times.

A strange voice—a telepathic cry caught the Gym Leader out of his meditative state as Anto and the others came into the gym. For some reason they were all smiling.

"I see you decided to challenge me right away. Just know that I will not be going easy on you as we battle for your badge." The Gym leader welcomed the challenger as the four others left towards the seats.

"_Actually, about that…_" The amber eyes of the trainer lit up like lights as he fiercely pointed towards the ice gym leader. "_Brycen, for this battle, I challenge you to a double battle! A 4 on 4 battle!_"

That caught the older man completely off guard. The challenger was creating a stipulation for his match that he was not expecting. Why did he do that? Was he more comfortable with double battles? Still he never had a challenger create a condition for their battle before, so the boy had quickly caught his attention. What was the point of this?

Still, what reason did the gym leader have for declining this? "Very well. I accept your terms. Whoever losses all four Pokémon first forfeits the match." Brycen saw the boy nod at his condition before taking out a Premier and Poké Ball.

"_Takezo! Kryx! Tear the Battlefield Asunder!_" He cried out as the two Pokémon appeared in bursts of light.

Brycen blinked as he looked in surprise. The Patrat was wearing an eastern themed straw conical hat that sometimes rice farmers wear and fashioning two wooden blades to the side of a miniature scabbards. Then he turned to the Elgyem who was wearing an eastern themed robe. Why where his Pokémon wearing costumes?

Takezo tilted his head upward, pushing his straw hat slightly up. "**Who dares enter into the Den of Dangers?**"

Kryx couldn't contain her excitement despite what she said next. "**All trespassers beware us, the Duo Guardians!**" She smiled as she tried to levitate up and fold her arms dramtically.

Brycen blinked, he had understood what those Pokémon had just said! "Wait, how did…"

"_I have the ability to translate language between Pokémon and People. It's a new ability to be honest, but now I thought it would be best if I do it now for this battle._" The amber eyed boys spoke out with a excited smile.

Brycen was still shocked that the amnesiac had this ability. However, as the shock died down, he realized something with what his two Pokémon said. "Hold on, I recognized what those two Pokémon just said."

The mirthful smile on the boy grew wider. Brycen did know those words his Pokémon just spoke, how could he not? Those were from his famous movie: Enter the Beartic! There was a scene were the hero and his friend had to pass through two powerful evil doers to enter into the den of the Evil Beartic.

Oh how nostalgic, but why was the boy having his Pokémon quote that movie? Fans?

"Come out, Cryognal, Vanilluxe!" Byrcen threw his duo into entering the battle.

As soon as they entered the double Ice Cream Pokémon suddenly cloaked the field in snow, covering the battlefield.

Wes frowned, thinking back at the time he had to deal with a snow team. As he thought back, he was starting to wonder how everyone else was doing now that Anto is much closer to joining the league.

Kryx blocked her eyes since some of the snow swatted her face, but then suddenly Takezo ignited his wooden blade with Assurance and seemingly cut off pieces of snow falling towards Kryx. When his hit made contact, everyone noticed that the pieces of snow were connected and looked attacked towards Cryognal's ice chains.

"**Impressive, young one,**" The Cryognal's voice sounded intrigued as the chains slowly made their way back towards the snowflake like Pokémon. "**You are the first Pokémon to ever notice my chains among the falling hail.**"

Takezo fixed his straw hat, the bits of ice rolling off it as he threw out his blade and then pointed it towards his opponent. "**My eyes are not just for show, you realize?**"

"**Ooohh! A Samurai off! Samurai battle! We're like super excited!**" The Vanilluxe spoke out besides their partner. "**I guess that means we get the psychic type though…**"

They all turned back to Kryx, who was putting on a bunch of green goggles with giant red lenses she got from underneath the cloak like dress. "**Ahh there we go, I can see much better now!**"

Brycen was surprised to hear his Pokémon talk as well as Anto's, but passing over that, he noticed the goggles the Elgyem had. "Those are?"

"_I got them back before I left Castelia City. Everyone was given Safety Goggles so that the desert storm wouldn't bother us on our walk. But I kept mine and recalled that the attendant said that the goggles also work for hail just like sandstorms! I had a feeling you would try a weather changing move in our battle so I gave Kryx my old one!_"

"**I like being given stuff.**" Kryx spoke out as she used a psychic shield to prevent the hail from buffering her.

Brycen stared at the two Pokémon. Despite the opening, this challenger was very prepared to face him. Still…

"Just because your own Pokémon can handle themselves in the snow does not mean my advantage stops there! In this weather my Pokémon get a boost!"

Suddenly, Takezo took out his second blade and both wooden swords ignited with dark energy. In a flurry of speed, the normal type slashed wildly, hitting and revealing more than a dozen frozen chains all aiming for him. As the Hail continued down, Cryognal was making more and more chains for him to manipulate like tendrils to attack the two from a far.

"**Now do you see them?!**" Takezo shouted towards Kryx whose eyes were already glowing and freezing all the chains mid air from being staggered by Takezo's strikes. Kryx pointed, making all the chains point back towards Cryognal and launch themselves back towards the giant snowflake. Vanilluxe acted quickly and used Flash Cannon to blast away the chains going back to his partner before unleashing an empowered Blizzard right on the two Pokémon. The psychic type levitated nearby Takezo, before psychically gathering ice to surround them before the attack covered over and really froze the make shift ice shield.

Cryognal made use of the hail still. Quickly recreating another batch of ice chains for him then making all the chains strike the dome with the force of ten whips and shattered the ice dome into chunks.

However, the attack only hit the dome. Kryx and Takezo were nowhere to be found.

Anto pointed and quickly everyone noticed Kryx and Takezo teleporting right above Vanilluxe. The Samurai unleashed a crossed X slash of dark energy on the Ice Cream Pokémon while Cryognal tried to whip his chains towards them in retaliation. The Extraterrestrial used psychic to block their momentum and send them back at Cryognal again. In that time the Elgyem was able to make the chains wrap around Cryognal like a badly wrapped Christmas present.

Then the alien scientist pushed them both with a powerful psychic blast making them fly across the battlefield.

However, Cryognal and Vanilluxe stood back up, or rather floated back up. Cryognal quickly loosened and untangled his chains while Vanilluxe looked to be healing from whatever damage Takezo had inflicted. This signaled that the Vanilluxe had Ice Body while the other Pokémon, taking on the Psychic blast, revealed that the snowflake Pokémon had some massive Special Defense stats.

"It's time I pressed the attack!" Brycen spoke out before ordering his Pokémon to use Blizzard once more but this time it was far stronger since Vanilluxe looked far angrier and Cryognal was now using his chains to attack the two with the Blizzard. Kryx quickly teleported out of the way while Takezo dashed/slid out of the attack while fending off the chains.

"Use your Ice Shard Whip variant!" Brycen called out.

The Cryognal shot out the speedy Ice Shard attack. At first glance it looked like Takeo would easily dodge it; however, the attack suddenly changed trajectory mid air and zoomed into the Patrat despite not losing velocity. More and more Ice Shards scattered and started homing in quickly on the normal type like a flurry of angry Beedrills and their stingers.

Takezo knew right away what was going on thanks to his sharp eyes, while Anto quickly figured it out. Brycen had ordered the Ice Shard attack to form around Cryognal's chains! This allowed him to aim and launch the attack from any angle he wished and allowed his chains to move faster and hit much harder like whips! Takezo was now using Detect to both avoid and block the near invisible chains among the hail until one of his blades got knocked out of his hands and eventually one of the chains constricted around the small normal type's leg and lifted him in the air.

Quickly, the ice type sent more chains to constrict Takezo in lift him mid air.

Meanwhile, Kryx had been teleporting around the Vanilluxe as they tried to aim for and hit the alien with a large ice blast. Kryx sent in her own blasts of psychic energy at the ice cream, but she wasn't doing enough damage that couldn't keep up with Vanilluxe's bulk and healing.

"Vanilluxe, use Flash Cannon on the Patrat!" Brycen commanded, seeing as how despite how sleeper Kryx was she lacked severely in fire power, and that his Pokémon could handle the small psychic as soon as they were done with the blade wielding normal type.

Anto panicked as this all happened but kept cool under pressure. "_Kryx Teleport!_"

Kryx appeared right next to Takezo of all places before grabbing him… and holding onto Cryognal's chains around the samurai.

"Don't let them escape, Crygonal!" Brycen cried out as Takezo saw another chain heading quickly towards Kryx beneath her.

Anto smirked.

Kryx quickly teleported all three of them—suddenly swapping the places where they were despite still being chained! Then in the last second, Crygonal got blindsided by Vanilluxe's Flash Cannon!

Anto capitalized as he saw the chains around Takezo weaken. "_Now Kryx, Psychic again!_"

Kryx psychically held onto the Snowflake Pokémon's body and chains… before throwing him at Vanilluxe! The two Pokémon slammed together and quickly, Kryx motioned all the chains to wrap and tie themselves around the two ice types.

"_Takezo! Blade Storm—Katana Variant!_"

Golden blades appeared floating near Takezo before they all condensed and became an electric Katana for Takezo to grab with his free hand. Then he quickly blasted off towards the two trapped Pokémon.

"Cryognal! Stop that Patrat!"

Out of the snow on the ground, more chains that were not used to tie the ice types down shot up to impede the charging samurai. However, Takezo slashed and shattered the chains with the raw energy of his Katana as he ducked, weaved, and slashed his way towards his opponents regardless of his obstacles.

When he got closer, more ice chains shot up to stop Takezo. The Samurai tilted his head, letting his straw hat get pierced from barely avoiding the last second blow before he unleashed a forceful, thundering slash on both Pokémon and then sliding away from the momentum of the attack.

The two Pokémon sparked with bits of electricity… then cackled… then electricity wildly danced around their bodied before exploding and stopping the hail from the battlefield.

The two ice types fell down unconscious, while Anto's Pokémon started gasping for breath.

"Well done!" Brycen complimented as he recalled the two Pokémon. "But this is far from over, go Mamoswine and Beartic!"

Two colossal ice Pokémon towered over the small psychic and normal type, and with how the two were tired from their fight with the first pair, Anto recalled them back into their spheres.

"Anto has been playing this quite well." Benga noted from the side.

"Yeah, I don't think Brycen is that well rounded when it comes to double battles." Jamie noticed.

White started thinking. "Now that I think of it, I don't usually see Gym Leaders do anything but single battles."

"You guys should see Orre. Single battles are actually super rare there. I think Anto has more experience in double battles than most people." Wes commented before they all looked at Anto throwing out his next pair of Pokémon.

Super Nut and Ohko stepped onto the field.

"**Super Nut and Friends enter onto the field dramatically!**" The Ferrothorn spoke out in third person.

Brycen was surprised that the opening move of the first pair was to use Stealth Rocks around the field, spreading out many floating boulders around the battlefield. He then noticed both Ohko and Super Nut already taking higher ground by jumping on the floating rocks. Brycen frowned; his two Pokémon right now didn't have that good off a ranged attack, but…

"Icicle Crash." Brycen called out as the two Pokémon summoned large frozen stalactites above the mobile Pokémon on the flying rocks.

The two Pokémon jumped and swung their way across the boulders, until they had reached the highest one where Ohko jumped up and shattered an falling icicle before give a thumbs up sign towards Super Nut.

"**A valiant effort, my comrade!**" Super Nut declared proudly.

"**Yea! We gots each other's back and we ain't going to lose to no power hungry Beartic!**" The one armed Sawk spoke out before pointing towards the Beartic down below.

Despite their thick accents and speech patterns, Brycen and hi Beartic recognized this as another indirect quote where the hero and his ally were facing down the rampaging Beartic.

Brycen gave the order to continue their fire before looking at the challenger and calling out to him as their Pokémon continued to fight. "Why are your Pokémon continually quoting my old movie?"

"_I asked them to. When I told my plans to my friends, Benga told me about your movies and I gave them a watch. They were so cool!_" As Anto conversed, Beartic and Mamoswine were now summoning icicles nearby them for the two power houses to throw with much faster speed at the two other strange Pokémon as they jumped from rock to floating rock.

Brycen felt a little pride, but it was mixed with some shame. "I am honored, but looking back, my past works were not something I appreciate as others do."

"_I know, you once said that you focused more on making cool stunts and that eventually gave you an injury that prevented your stunt acting for a while, which is why you retired from acting and went to being a gym leader. But I did watch your movie, despite those amazing stunts, I enjoyed the human parts of the movie as well. In Enter the Beartic, your character doesn't fight for glory or honor. He fights to save his friend who put himself at risk to save the hero. You portrayed your character wonderfully, and that was the part that I enjoyed most of all, not the cool stunts, but the humanity and kindness you showed behind that state of courage._"

Brycen stayed silent at the thought provoking words the young teen. This was the first time someone had complimented his acting rather than his stunts. It felt strange, but as he recalled in acting, he had to feel the part as well. He truly felt like he was avenging and protecting a friend during the final climax of the movie and he would have been lying if he said he did not feel at least somewhat heroic in that moment.

Anto went on. "_It was then I found my answer in regards to Team Plasma by watching your movie. I know that Team Plasma has done horrible things, but I think there is honestly some good in them. So I choose to fight, not to prevent them from threatening Unova, but to inspire them that what they're doing is wrong._"

Brycen closed his eyes.

"That sounds Idealistic and naïve." He said as Beartic and Mamoswine have launched so many Icicle Crashes at the two that they destroyed all floating Stealth Rocks in the air and brought Anto's pair back into the ground.

"_I won't deny that, but I can't really bring myself to hate or despise anyone in the long term. Sure I get angry at them at the horrors they do, but afterward? I only wish they would be more compassionate._" He spoke softly with strange tenderness.

Still Brycen thought that was a dangerous way of thinking. "Then how would you change that?"

An honest smile, with eyes that shined of something clever and devious appeared on the boy's face after he was asked that question. "_I have one crazy idea that I don't think anyone has tried: I'm going to make the King of Team Plasma, enjoy a Pokémon battle!_"

Make the King of Team Plasma enjoy the very thing he loathes with all his soul and might? That sounded impossible! Was this child truly insane?

Yet why…? How could he say something so incredible with the most determined face he has only seen in Black so far?

"It sounds impossible, but yet… if you truly wish to prove such improbable and outlandish ideals, you must prove to me your strength to pursue them!"

All four Pokémon clashed heavily against each other with blow after heavy blow. There was no grace or speed in this battle where the previous four Pokémon battled in test of skill. This one was a test of pure power, endurance, and will. "_My ideals sound farfetched, but last time I checked: humans have always had this ability to turn ideals into truth by chasing after them! I'm not giving up! No matter what impossible odds stand in my way, I'm going for it; win or lose! That's what I've decided!_"

The boy screamed out. If his life was nothing but strange ever since he woke up, why couldn't he try to do the crazy and impossible as well? Actually he knew that was something like Gambler's Fallacy in expecting some kind of pattern when there actually wasn't, but there was something Anto always did whenever he battled anyone: he battled with all of his heart and soul. There had to be something in a battle he could show to N that no one ever taught him before.

Ohko and Super Nut where knocked back a peg as Beartic and Mamoswine pushed the two Pokémon away.

Yet the mute stood strong. "_But I'm not going in alone! I've got the best back up in the world behind me! Ohko, Super Nut! Yoyo Combo!_"

"Yoyo?" Brycen quickly stated in confusion.

Suddenly the costumed Ferrothorn shot out one of his vines which Ohko quickly grabbed. The fighting type flexed and then pulled on the vine, lifting Super Nut and moving the steel and grass type towards the blue Pokémon. Ohko lifted his leg… then kicked Super Nut as he had a small circular Protect force field around him!

Super Nut shot out like a blur and slammed right into Mamoswine! Not only that, the Protect barrier was gone, and Mamoswine felt hurt from the thick spikes from Super Nut and tumbled over from the heavy impact.

Beartic and Brycen gasped before they noticed Ohko pulling back for Ferrothorn then swinging his body around the fighting type before whipping him back towards Beartic!

Brycen immediately realized why Anto had called out Yoyo, he was using the elastic vines of his Ferrothorn to come back from each attack with potentially greater force! He quickly commanded his Beartic to block since he lacked the speed to dodge such a combination. However, despite bracing the blow, it did little as Beartic was knocked down hard into the ground sliding on the ice.

Brycen had ordered his Pokémon to go all out, ordering the Mamoswine to perform Giga Impact while it shrouded itself in thick ice like armor. Then he commanded Beartic to use Avalance in such a way that the ice beneath them shook hard and gave power for the towering pure ice type to extend his claws with a large amount of ice energy in them that contained all the damage he had received so far in this fight.

Ohko and Super Nut returned in kind. The one armed fighting type threw Super Nut towards the fast moving Mamoswine with amazing speed, and as he did Super Nut started spinning wildly with Gyro Ball as the two incoming forced made contact.

But at the same exact time, Ohko ignited his fist with a blaze of fire and charge right for the Beartic who threw his long, muscular arms back and unleashed the heaviest punch he could muster at Ohko with the Avalanche stored claws.

The four heavy blows made contact and a huge explosion covered the whole gym, causing everyone to cough violently and wait out until the dust settled.

When they came back up, all four Pokémon were lying on the ground, injured form the contact of all attacks.

However, to everyone's surprise, all four Pokémon slowly got back up despite the heavy damage each of them took.

"That is enough!" Brycen yelled. "I have seen enough. Anto, you win."

"_I-I do?_" The young boy sounded surprised as Brycen walked over to his side of the field, recalling his two ice types.

"To be honest, I think you had an advantage being more experienced in double battles than I, but none the less, I have lost against you and your Pokémon. And now I present to you the Freeze Badge in honor of your victory."

"_Thanks._" Anto spoke out before Ohko and Super Nut came by.

"**Oh wow look at that! It's so shiny! Danger Damoiseau, permission to use your badges as valiant symbols of justice!?**"

Anto actually understood the meaning of what he was actually implying. "_No you cannot just use these like police badges to show off or wear them along your mask!_"

Super Nut deflated.

The amnesiac relaxed a bit. "_… __After the league, I promise to give these to you and you can do whatever you want with them._"

"**Truly!?**" Super Nut's response was met with a nod. "**Look out Evil Doers, The Dynamic Pair is on the case!**" The Pokémon said as he grabbed Anto and hugged him… with his spikes…

"_AAAH!? Super Nut!?_" Anto cried out.

"**Ooh! Group Hug! I want in to boss!**" Ohko spoke out before Super Nut quickly wrapped Ohko in as well, but then made the young teen get crushed between a hard place and a spikey place.

Brycen stared in shock as the boy struggled with standing before flailing around and then falling into the icey floors with hail still.

The boy and his Pokémon… they all seemed to be on the same wavelength. Perhaps there truly was more to him than met the eye.

Still, as Anto was struggling to get his Pokémon off him, he felt like he was actually starting to bleed with how close he was to Super Nut with his bone crushing hug.

Brycen raised his brow at the odd sight of drips of blood starting to come out. That boy was definitely going to clean that up later. No one bleeds on his clean gym floors.

Still… perhaps…

There was a gamble worth taking on the strange boy.

[Meanwhile…]

They two stepped off the plane, taking in the air around them.

"Ahh Unova! It's great to be back!"

"Man it's chilly here. Brrr!"

"Well we're in the northern region of course. … Flow? You sense them?"

**"****Oh Yes Summer! I can sense Anto's signature from here! I can't wait to meet them again!**"

* * *

**{Important Author Notes}**

**OK, I accidentally forgot to write some Author notes but this should explain somethings right off the bat.**

**Yes, Anto is getting his next badge very quickly than normal: I have a reason for this and you'll see it later. I'm really asking you guys to be patient because I'm going to explain this right in the next chapter because this is technically a small but plot important arc.**

**There is something else in Icirrus City that I want Anto to do, so getting his badge early was the only way to make this work.**

**Also, I am aware of how cheesy Anto sounded, but I promise you that while I was writing that mini speech, an idea popped into my head.**

**Basically, these notes are here to Apologize before showing what the next chapter is. Sorry for posting this wrong in the first place. **


	38. 38: The Madness of Men and Demons Pt 1

Episode 38: The madness of men and demons Part 1.

[Extra: The Endless Stories.]

By now, everyone knows the story of the Two Heroes in Unova. How they, along with a mighty dragon, saved the world until the heroes bickered and separated the dragon.

With this in mind, has anyone ever asked _how_ they became heroes?

Funny enough, the secret story has been passed down by a ancient family line in Sinnoh that died out a hundred years back. I don't know how a family in Sinnoh came to this story, but none the less it portrays how the brothers and Dragon became heroes.

When the stars were still young, something fell into the world. This object from the sky was a being of malevolence, power, and destruction. Kingdoms fell that were in its path, people's sanities broke as they bore witness to the creature's form.

… I'm boring you aren't I? It's a fairly basic story honestly. There was a big bad monster and the heroes defeated it. A tale as old as stories themselves…

Right?

But here's where reality kicks in. According to the old story, the heroes _did not_ defeat the monster. They _sealed_ it away just like how the dragons slumbered after their heroes passed on.

In other words: it's still alive. It's still here.

And I know what exactly that creature is, and what horrors it can do to us all. My entire life has been dedicated to making sure it stays sealed up… and if the unthinkable happens when it gets unleashed back into the world…

Everyone knows many legends and stories, but there are some that are better left forgotten.

[…]

When the group finally left the Icirrus City Gym after Byrcen patched Anto up from the 'victory hug', Jamie asked, "Does anyone find it weird how quickly Anto got this badge compared to the others?"

"_Did you have to point that out?_" Anto placed his seventh badge into his case while he was walking out with them. "_I've been wondering why traveling was so smooth when the previous Mistralton Gym Leader to just drop us off in the next city over. But I didn't say anything to tempt fate._"

"… I've really got to watch what I say around you don't I?" Jamie recalled all the times so far when actually saying something did tempt the Cosmos to change life situations like a cartoon.

It was then a large amount of people were seen passing by the gym. Curious, Wes called out to wards the nearest one.

"Huh? Oh! You guys must be travelers so you wouldn't know, but there's been this rich Company that's been excavating the nearby Dragon Ruins and it's now opened to the public! Their grand opening is today!"

"The Tower is open to the public?!" Benga screamed out in shock. He fondly recalled all the stories of the closed off and mysterious tower by his grandfather several times and was always interested to visit the place.

The person nodded before explaining that the rich company decided to restore some of the ancient Unova culture. He further explained for the past three months they've been working around the ruins and have just recently opened up. Today was their grand opening.

"Whoa cool! Come on guys! Let's go!" Benga excitedly spoke out as the bystander went towards the ruins.

"Hmm, it would be interesting to see the sights." Jamie offered.

"_Hold up. Am I the only one noticing the Donphan in the room?_" Everyone looked towards Anto. "_Who wants to bet that this "Rich Company" is Dimension Enterprise?_"

…

"What about them?" Benga tilted his head in confusion.

"_Oh gosh we never explained it to you did I? Well you see—"_

"_—and that is when I also learned to give up forever on afternoon TV Drama from Johto._" Anto finished explaining to Benga as they all came back into the Pokémon Center.

Benga stared contemplatively for a second before pointing a hand up and opening his mouth. "I don't think that just because Dimension Enterprise is a sponsor to what your Pokémon watch, it means that you should hate it."

"_That's what they want you to think! I swear Felipe and Luara's relationship is a symbol of my life struggles!_"

"Wow Anto! You're so paranoid! I can't even over think things like you can!" Benga admitted in awe.

"_I'm not crazy!_"

"Mute, don't be so crazy. It's scaring the normal people." Wes offhandedly mentioned, making the mute stare at his older friend.

The five of them were in one of the free Pokémon center rooms that were given to them. In total there were four, but Benga strangely said that he would sleep outside instead no matter how cold or bad the weather was.

"Sorry Benga, but we can't go anywhere near that place if any of those higher up monsters are there as well which is more than likely." White spoke out as well.

Jamie, behind everyone's back, pulled her sleeve harder.

Wes then sat up from the bed he was sitting on. "Actually, do you think we can go?"

"_Why?_" When the mute asked this, he didn't seem surprised like everyone else. Instead he was curious since his mind worked faster than he thought, realizing that there was probably a reason why Wes offered this in the first place.

"Don't you think it's kind of weird? Dimension Enterprise is all about transport and rather mundane things no one thinks twice about, but suddenly they have a major opening in archeology? Their obviously up to something," Wes pointed out. "I know it's risky, but maybe we can find out what they're doing here?"

"Are you kidding!? They know what Anto looks like! We'd be spotted instantly if we were anywhere within their sights!" White threw out her arm.

"… _Wait, Wes does have a point though. Right now we are on the defensive, but what if this is a chance to at least gain some more information on what they're planning?_" Anto looked to White. "_I know it's a risk, but what if we can sneak in without them noticing?_"

Benga looked towards Jamie. "Why not wear a disguise then?" He plainly offered.

They all turned to the flame haired teen. "I mean they know you, Anto, but why not just wear a disguise. Isn't White from an Actor Studio or something? She could know some make up skills. Jamie can help out to since make up is usually a girl thing." He pointed to Jamie with his thumb.

White and Anto blinked several times.

'Well that's one way of revealing a secret.' The boy from Orre thought to himself.

"Wait, Jamie is a girl!?" White cried out along with Anto.

Jamie just stared hard at Benga.

"Now that you mention it, Jamie is rather well kept and clean for a guy…" White put a hand on her chin as she recalled how nice his—her hair was every morning. "Why didn't you tell us you were a girl!?"

"I… I wasn't trying to hide it?" Jamie spoke out. "I never really had the need to correct people in my gender because I didn't mind."

"_Really?_" Anto was still processing Jamie as a girl. He was spending all this time… with a nother girl he thought was a dude this whole time. "_Hey wait a second, didn't I remove my shirt once in front of you when Kryx accidentally set fire to one of my shirts?_"

Jamie flushed red. "I-I looked away."

"See!?" Benga exclaimed ignoring the thought process of Anto who just realized he near stripped in front of a girl. "If we want to get into the ruins and see what we're up against, we're going to have to go incognito!"

"Why are you so excited about this?" Wes asked the newcomer.

"Are you kidding me!? Going in disguise and going through enemy lines?! We're going to go all spy code on their collective butts! Ooh! Let's. Make. CODENAMES. From now on call me "Flaming TalonFlame"!" Benga excitedly jumped up and down.

"We are not going in code names!" Jamie spoke out.

"You shall be "Gender Confusion"!" Benga went on and pointed to Jamie.

"Are you even listening to me!?" The girl disguised as a boy spoke out.

White put a palm in her face. "Suddenly, I miss Black."

"Anto shall be known as "Cosmic Bull's-Eye"!"

"_I refuse to be known as that!_"

[Later…]

After much, much persuasion and a lot of makeup tricks White picked up from working with actors and prop directors, she was able to pull off five new disguises with wigs and new clothes.

Unfortunately for Anto, White had only two male disguises left and thanks to a game of "Not it" guess what he was left with?

What if I were to tell you short skirts were dangerously comfortable to the mute despite it being chilly. (Though with how hard he was blushing, the cold air didn't seem to affect him as much.)

"_Why me?_" Anto isolated his psychic voice only to the 'others' beside him as they made their way towards the grand public opening of the Spiral Dragon Tower.

The disguise he was wearing gave him the appearance of a teenage fashionista with shoulder length red hair wig styled like a pony tail while wearing a pink flower comb. He had to wear some contacts to make his plain looking amber eyes look like blue sea orbs and the clothes he was wearing where actually some of White's and Jamie's clothes.

…

He was almost impressed and surprised he could actually fit into women's clothes, but was more disturbed with the fact he was lean enough to fit into them in the first place.

There was also this strange familiarity to this, as if he had worn women's clothes before. (He begged to whatever being up there that it was a part of his previous school and theater life where he acted as a woman on the stage.)

Arceus dang it, he was never going to live this day down was he?

What was worse was the fact that this disguise was supposed to make people lay low.

The wolf whistles and the heads turning where something he should not be impressed with.

"_We should turn back. Perhaps White had the right idea after all._" Anto told them.

Wes, garbed in completely different attire that made him look like a hippe with an afro (complete with rainbow peace sign shirts and strange bell jeans), swung his arm around Anto with a huge jerk grin. "Come on Sister Anita, we don't get out to enjoy the wondrous gifts of mother earth maaaannnn~."

"_I know you're doing this just to spite me, Wes._"

"There is no such thing as spite, sister, but the government's brainwashing power known as 'So-ci-ya-taeh', making us hate one another without reason! Let the love fill you, sister!"

Anto would have put a threatening leer if he wasn't as red as a Daramnitan's behind. Wes was just milking this character of his.

"We came this far, it would be kind of a waste to leave now, but we will be extra careful." White spoke out as she dressed up as a blond ace trainer. Oh she gets the normal one, doesn't she?

"KYAAAHHH~!"

Anto turned his head. "_And then there's __this__ guy._"

Benga's costume was another 1-80 turn. Instead of the hyperactive, wild child, he was now dressed in a suit with his wild and unruly hair swept back into a man pony tail. He picked up a fall handkerchief and smiled pretty towards a flustered girl.

"Madame? I believe this is yours." He spoke out in a deceptively suave and British accent.

The girls around sophisticated man squealed again. The girl who Benga was handing back her handkerchief actually fell down from a light head, but then Benga caught her from falling, wrapping his arms around her like a delicate flower.

"Ahh… that is not good miss. It's not good to wander out in such cold weather. I suggest going back home and taking a nice rest." He spoke softly.

The girls around him were so enamored by debonair Benga. The girl in his arms promptly fainted.

"_… I hate my life._" Anto spoke out as Benga handled the girl away with grace and poise…

Of a gentleman! (TM)

Benga looked over towards Anto and Wes and walked up to him.

"Are you alright, Anita?"

At this point he missed the fake name Cosmic Bull's-eye.

Suddenly Anto heard growling and at the corner of his fake blue eyes he noticed all the girls growling at him.

Girls are really, really scary.

The amnesiac who was currently cross dressing felt Wes' arm wrap around him. "Don't worry brother Agneb, our Cosmic Bull's-eye here is just feeling the cold air." Dang it Wes, is he still sore about Anto crashing his hover bike!?

"It's good to see you watching out for her… 'Anti-Capitalism'!" Benga saluted coolly—

'_Don't say such a twisted thing with a straight and cool face you idiot!_' Anto thought to himself inwardly as Benga was still using code names here and there.

"Guys! We have to hurry up! There's a large crowd gathering at the new entrance to the Ruins!"

The four looked towards Jamie, who instead of… her… usual get up, she was wearing winter clothes while wearing a short blue hair wig. She honestly looked like a real girl, and she was kinda pretty…

Thank Arceus for small mercies. The last thing Anto needed was Takezo's commentary.

The five gathered near a large crowd that was near a main entrance with two stages on the side. On the right, one man was finishing about a brief recap of the history and how they received permission from the town mayor to do this.

"But before we finally open up the ruins, may I introduce to you our CEO, Sied Dimension!"

The group's eyes widened. The CEO of the company was here?

The crowd cheered as a fairly young man in his late thirties walked out into the stage. He was a tall and muscular man with violet hair which was kind of surprising since they were not expecting him to look so buff or young.

"Hello everyone. I would like to welcome you all to the opening of the Dragonspiral Tower, an ancient ruin created long ago for some mysterious reason lost to most historians. Dimension Enterprise has always been a silent company in the background and we usually take pride in helping others create their dreams by helping distribute items and manufacturing the building blocks for their success."

Then his purple colored irises looked to the crowd…

And directly locked eyes with Anto.

The boy disguised as a girl quickly put a hand on his head.

"Ant—Anita, what's wrong?" White quickly spoke out.

"_We need to leave. Now!_" Anto clutched his chest and the clothes he was wearing hard. An uneasy feeling came up to him.

"But how about we open up the ruins now shall we? Ah! You there! Girl with red hair at the back with a white designer jacket!"

The group paled as the crowd all looked towards them.

"Come on over, lucky lady! You've been chosen to cut the ribbon and let everyone into the ruins!" Sied spoke out in an excited manner.

Anto shook his head and stepped back.

"Come on don't be shy, let's give her a hand for the girl, show her we care!"

At his voice the crowd started applauding, cheering for the girl to go up to the stage.

"Anto, some guards have slowly surrounded us." Wes whispered to his ear secretly.

The disguised boy glanced around, noticing the subtle movements of people wearing suited uniforms closing in.

"_I am an idiot. Sorry guys…_" Anto spoke out before… hugging Wes? And then making his way, making the crowd cheer wildly…

Jamie then shook her head and ran up to Anto, locking her arm around his before walking up.

"I can't let you go alone." She told him.

Surprisingly Jamie was allowed into the stage as the crowd cheered. Anto felt light headed the more he came closer to the CEO.

The body builder business man welcomed them. "Hello and you two are?"

"I'm Jaycelyn! And this is my sister, Anita!" Jamie quickly spoke out. "S-Sorry but my sister isn't feeling quite well and she doesn't speak."

Some of the crowd started mumbling.

Sied smiled kindly. "I see, you are such a loyal sister aren't you? And they both look quite pretty don't they, so of course they are related." Some people cheered as Sied lightly changed the tone.

"Now then, I present to you two the giant scissors before opening up the ruins held by our very own Simon Baker!"

Baker?

The group thought to themselves. Wasn't that the last name of the family Anto met in Mistralton City!? The one whose dead son's body was stolen!?

"_Dad?_"

Jamie looked to Anto as the word escaped from his mind. It was soft, but the boy was shocked.

An old man around his later forties waved humbly as he walked towards the ladies with a pair of giant scissors.

"Now don't let this fool you. This is the most impractical scissor ever made. Don't ever try to cut paper objects near your window with this—your paranoid neighbors will continually call the police and claim you're a homicidal maniac with a giant cutting fetish."

Jamie laughed at the surreal yet straight faced way Simon baker described that little tidbit.

"Ahh see! A girl is more beautiful with a smile!" Simon spoke out with his brown eyes before looking towards Anto. "And you…" He trailed off as his face fell and looked closer at the boy in disguise.

"A-Anita?" Jamie elbowed the boy and made him step back nervously.

"Oh um sorry miss. It's just that you," He trailed off and his voice became softer. "Remind me of someone dear to me." He gave the large, silly scissors to the cross dresser.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Out the count of three everyone!" Sied cried out as he raised a hand.

One!

Benga, Wes, and White started moving.

Two!

Jamie looked worriedly towards Anto as he stepped away from Simon…

Three!

The boy cut the ribbon and at that moment he felt something pause.

(**1 /\/\ 1_ /\/\ 0 5 + + }{ 3 8 3**…) = I am almost there…

"And the ruins are now open to the public!" The crowd cheered wildly.

"A-Alright, now w-we have to go, my sister isn't feeling that well…" Jamie spoke out as she tried to get Anto out of there.

"Why leave? It would be a shame not to go in. It's a beautiful place and we tried out best not to move anything while trying to make it a safe place… as much as possible. Life always finds a way to screw one over." Simon spoke out kindly.

"I-It's OK, Mr. Baker. We'll just go later."

"If your sister isn't feeling well, we have a nursing tent just around the corner." Sied described.

Jamie inwardly cursed. "N-No we couldn't bother you."

"Mam, it's our job as hosts to take care of our customers." Sied described with a calm smile. "Why don't I lead you two over? Simon, take care of some of the press here." He spoke as he lightly showed them the way away from the moving crowd.

This wasn't looking good.

(** [ 0 /\/\ 3 + 0 /\/\ 3…**) =Come to me…

And Anto was still feeling his head ringing.

"HOW DARE YOU DESECRATE HOLY GROUND!"

The sound of a booming voice, made everyone look back to where a large group of Team Plasama members had gathered around. Anto recognized the one speaking; he was that one guy next to Clay after he fell on that Ghetsis character the second time. Everyone's attention was turned over to them and Team Plasma and that's when Anto had an idea.

He quickly scanned the area, but found out more guards were coming over towards them after Sied tried to lead them away. They surrounded both he and Jamie all except around…

"_Now, run!_" Anto mentally told her as he grabbed her hand and ran into the ruins through the stunned crowd into the ruins.

As he briefly looked back, he saw Sied try to reach out and seemingly look surprised and frustrated as he left—which meant that he did know about him somehow!

"You do not deserve the glory of Pokémon! Team Plasma, Liberate!" One of the Six Sages screamed out as the Pokémon surrounding team Plasma started attacking the people. Sied cursed and commanded his security team to evacuate the civilians before throwing out a shiny green Dragonite.

Wes and the others saw this battle commence as the crowd stated panicking and they quickly slipped away behind a now emptied booth.

Wes removed his wig and wiped off the makeup hiding his face. "Well, for once I think Anto's horrible luck is working in our favor. We gotta get him and Jamie out of here."

"But they ran into the Ruins before the battle started," White removed her wig and started letting lose her hair. "How are we going to get there through all this fighting?"

"Uhh guys?" Benga was barely spotting the battle from where he was. "We might wanna act fast; our distraction isn't lasting as long as we thought."

"What are you talking about—oh. Oh…" White paled as she and Wes raised their heads cautiously above the booth.

The green Dragonite was absolutely destroying all the Team Plasma Pokémon. Heck—the guards were all so focused on actually evacuating the bystanders that they didn't need to worry about their boss. It looks like the CEO wasn't just a body builder, but one hell of a trainer!

"What are you all doing!? It's just one Pokémon!?" The sixth sage, Zinzolin as he was known, screamed out loud as he looked towards the Intimidating Dragonite who was staring down at him with a glare unlike from his species. "Weavile, show them how it's done! Use Ice Shard!"

The Weavile laced its claws with ice and within an instant, shot himself to the emerald Dragonite with insane speed.

Weavile unleashed the attack—on nothing but air!?

"W-What!?" Zinzolin and The three hiding in the booth were shocked. One second Dragonite was clearly there, but suddenly it's as if he shifted right over to the side of Weavile, with his fist already cackling with electricity.

The green Dragonite quickly hammered the ice and dark type down hard with the thunder punch, making him crash into the ground with a boom.

"Did you even see him move?! What was that!?" White shout whispered towards the two.

"I-I don't know, I thought for sure that attack would hit, but somehow, he not only dodged it but counter attacked instantly! Th-there's no way there's a move or skill that can do that!" Benga spoke out. "Heck, I'm not even sure that was Aura, Psychic, or any other above average power! What was that!?"

"Guys, focus! The CEO obviously has something really big up his sleeve, but we need to leave, preferably with Anto!" Wes calmed them both before reaching into his pocket and taking out a familiar Premier Ball.

"Isn't that?" White trailed off.

Benga snapped his fingers. "Oh so that's why Anto hugged you! I didn't even notice him slip that in!"

"It his sleight of hand could use some work, but I'm proud of him none the less." Wes quipped before opening up Kryx's container.

The psychic type came out while wearing a lab coat and goggles while psychically holding two test tubes with a green liquid and an orange liquid.

"**Steady… steady…**" She didn't seem to notice everything around her as she started tilting the green test tube towards the orange one.

"Kryx!" Benga cried out, causing the psychic type to lose focus and drop the compounds into the ground.

Everyone watched as the tubes cracked into the ground and the orange liquid burned into the snow. As for the green liquid, it suddenly formed into a miniature blob like creature with tentacles and five eyes.

"Haha! I'm free! The world shall bleed at my forthcoming! MWAHAHAHAHA!" The blob shouted out in a very tiny and squeaky voice before slipping past out of the booth.

Kryx blinked before looking back at the others. "**Hey guys, where's Anto?**"

White, seeing the whole thing pointed back towards where the blob left. "Umm Kryx? What was that?"

"**One of my experiments. Don't worry about it though; his compound is highly volatile to oxygen, so he shouldn't be anyone's problem in about—**"

There was a loud explosion and more people screaming coming from the escape route the small blob left from.

"OH GOSH ANOTHER EXPLOSION!? NO ONE WAS EVEN FIGHTING THERE!"

…

Wes looked to the psychic type. "Kryx, we need you to get Anto and Jamie and bring them back here." Wes calmly said while choosing to ignore everything else going on in the background.

The scientist Pokémon telekinetically moved up her goggles and got a Nintendo 3DS looking object out of her lab pockets. "**Okie Dokie! Let me just get my tracker to pin point him and… huh…**"

"Huh? What huh? And is that a 3DS? Crap did I forget to remove my chrager from the plug?" Benga looked down as he tried to recall if he did such a thing.

"**Well according to my tracker, he's on his way to the top of that tower but I can't teleport in.**" Kryx started pressing something along the bottom screen with a stylus.

"Why?" White looked back to see Team Plasma losing more of their allies against the "army of one" Dragonite.

"**There are some psionic disrupters placed all over the tower. I can't teleport in to the building. Not only that, my tracker is picking some odd interference with all those storm clouds up there at the top of the tower. I'm even picking up a really weird signal. … But it might be possible for me to disable some of those disruptors from the inside and teleport them out…**" The alien explained.

"Of course it's not going to be easy…" Wes spoke out. "And Team Plasma is getting their butts kicked by just one person."

Benga also decided to sneak a peek, but then all three, and Kryx, ducked as the saw two team Plasma members be thrown into their booth and crash into some boxes.

Wes was the first to speak up as he eyed the two unconscious grunts. "… Someone speak up right now because I have a plan and I really, really hate it."

[Back with Anto]

Anto and Jamie ran into the Ruins, passing by the large dusty walls, the water flooding the bottom ruins, and reaching the end of the room where a "Do not Enter" sign was kicked away from a bunch of stairs.

"Well we can't go back out there. We'll have to try to find something up there." Jamie spoke before she and Anto ran up the ruins.

"Isn't it strange though? Why is Team Plasma here? I thought they were obsessed over the dragon of legend here in Unova?" Jamie wondered out loud.

Anto was glad that odd feeling he had awhile ago was lessened, but there was this tiny part of his brain that tickled him about being here.

"W-Wow! This place keeps going up!" Jamie spoke out as they both looked up and saw how high this tower actually went.

( **\+ \\_/ 8 /\/ 8 0 \\_/ /\/ |] **) = Turn around.

Anto felt this odd urge to face behind him—his eyes widened. "_Jamie, get down!_"

**{Very Highly recommended music: Antti Martikainen - From the Fields of Gallia}**

The boy in a skirt tackled the girl as a sniper round just hit the wall where Anto's head would have been.

"W-What?!" Jamie yelped as she saw the bullet crack the old walls with smoke coming off the hole.

"Fire another load! Hurry!" The distance voices screamed, prompting the two to get back up.

"_Super Nut, Protect!_" Anto removed his wig and threw out the Ultra Ball as out appeared the caped Ferrothorn with a green forcefield to deflect three sniper rounds.

To Jamie's horror, she saw the three masked people from the Music Festival! Only this time they were wearing strange armor and sleek suits but were armed with Sniper Rifles all aiming at her and Anto!

The girl felt a vine coil around her as Super Nut grabbed both Anto and Jamie with one vine and Power Whip(ed) away as soon as his barrier fell.

The masked agents sent their own Pokémon out, the Torren Region Mega Flygon, the Mega Pinsir, and Mega Gengar. The female agent stepped on her Mega Flygon to fly after them while the Mega Pinsir grabbed the Caucasian man with short blue hair then the Mega Gengar made the man with dark skin and dreadlocks fade into the shadows before the giant shadow trailed fast after Jamie and Anto.

"_Jamie, your Pokémon—now!_"

The owner of the Mega Pinsir aimed the rifle towards Anto's head, but Super Nut stretched ahead and swung to the side and launched himself upward, dodging live rounds as they all descended higher.

Mega Flygon swooped in from the side, unleashing a devastating Dragon Pulse while Super Nut was mid air.

"Golruk, Power Up Punch!" Jamie screamed as she placed a recently opened Poké Ball back into her belt. The Powerful Ghost type appeared and punched the beam heading towards them, allowing Super Nut to move on, but the Mega's attack overwhelmed the ghost type, blasting him to phase through the walls.

"Golruk!" Jamie cried for her Pokémon while Anto fidgeted for his Pokémon despite being pulled up faster by Super Nut's vine swinging and climbing upward.

The two fliers came together, both their snipers aiming again with a clear shot at Anto who threw out the Dusk Ball into their path before catching it as they moved up faster.

The agents both fired.

"_Phantom Force!_"

Sentinel grabbed onto Anto's hand mid air and brought all of them into the dark dimension of the Phantom Force.

-Oh Gosh!- Jamie's voice sounded strange in this distorted dimension.

Anto tried to described as they all kept going up. -_Right you've never been—-_

-No, they're still following us!- Jamie pointed downward where a white shadow popped up, revealing Mega Gengar and the Raikou masked agent with his rifle pointed right at Anto.

-_They can follow us even here!?_\- Anto yelled as he was suddenly tossed into the air by Super Nut to avoid another bullet. Sentinel jumped out of Anto's arms and fired a Shadow Ball at the Pursuers before Mega Banette came out and fire a dozen Will-o-Wisps to counter the attack. Sentinel moved through the dimension and brought them all back to the ruins where The Suicuine and Entei masked agents pointed their rifles back at them as they went towards the next floor.

"Hey—is that!?" Jamie couldn't finish as they climbed up to see a large group of Team Plasma members and one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma in this floor.

And all of them looked back at the two teens.

"Intruders! Stop them! Lord N is in the middle of the Awakening!" At this new Sage's command, all the Grunts aimed right for Super Nut as he kept climbing higher with Sentinel using Shadow Sneak to phase into the wall and catch up with them.

"_N?_" Anto repeated the letter of the familiar person he knew despite narrowly missing over a dozen attack all aimed at Super Nut and them.

It was then that the two agents, now with in the wall flying right beside them, came up and noticed Team Plasma attacking their prey.

Their presence was also immediately noticed by the group of wannabe cultists.

"It's them! Those are the masked bandits that besmirched our name! Get them!" The Sage screamed as now the intruders were forgotten in favor of their enemies, blasts of power shot all through out the walls and echoed through out the floor they were all in.

Jamie sighed in relief as the attacks all lessened and focused more on the two agents, but then Super Nut suddenly started dropping out of the wall! Everyone looked up and saw a Mega Blaziken coming at insane speed towards them with his entire body ablaze.

Jamie and Anto threw out their next Pokémon. "_Ohko!_"/"Fletchinder!"

The two Pokémon came out, and Sentinel jumped in with them to attack and counter the charging Mega Blaziken.

The collision knocked them towards the floor, but Anto and Jamie threw out their remaining Pokémon.

Lily was given the command and quickly summoned a pile of Magical Leaves to catch Super Nut, Takezo, and Sylveon as they all landed nearby some Team plasma Grunts.

"Hey! You aren't supposed to be here—why are you wearing a skirt?" One of the grunts asked Anto.

Ignoring how he was in a life or death situation wearing questionable clothes, Anto looked up quickly. "_Thank you for the advice, but that goes for you too!_" He projected as he quickly helped Jamie up and ran away.

Before the Team Plasma grunts could react, Ohko was thrown down at them and knocked them off their feet.

"Anto, look! Stairs that lead further up!" Jamie pointed to the large spiral staircase nearby them.

"_How freaking tall is this place!?_" Anto cried out as they started running up the stairs. Takezo stopped and looked behind them—

CLANG!

—before parrying a spike that was dangerously close to piercing Anto's face. The normal type followed through and knocked away the Mega Cacturne's spiked arm before unsheathing his second blade and kicking him off the stairs back on to the battle field.

"**Anto, where is Kryx?**" Takezo spoke as he readied his Choice Scarf around his right bokken. They all ran up the stairs.

"_I gave her Poké Ball to Wes in case we needed saving. What's taking them so long!?_"

[With Wes…]

"Arceus, I feel like a tool." Wes spoke out as he walked briskly towards Team Plasma with Elektross floating beside him.

"But this surprisingly comfortable for some reason." Benga spoke out as he and Wes were dressed in Team Plasma uniforms they took from the unconscious people.

"R-Retreat!" Zinzolin cried out as the green Dragonite body checked three Pokémon in one move.

"Go sir!" Wes lied as he called out to him. "We'll cover your escape!"

"Got it!" Zinzolin nodded before realizing he had never seen those two boys before… bah who cares, they weren't going to lose anymore to that monster of a dragon type. Its power was eerily amazing! Not only that, they were only tasked to distract and liberate as much as they could while Lord N made his preparations with the team that infiltrated the tower during this distraction.

Wes and Benga jumped away as the Dragonite punched the ground they were standing in previously.

"This kind of makes thing easier…" Wes threw out the rest of his Pokémon, revealing Espeon, Umbreon, Delta Wartorlte, and even Zwelious.

Benga threw out his Pokémon, Ferland the shiny Garchomp and a Volcarona named Rei.

"Poké Balls?" Sied walked up leisurely behind his Pokémon towards the two. "You two aren't Team Plasma, are you?"

"Oh please do you think we'd wear this ridiculous get up on purpose?" Wes spoke out as he removed his hood. "Honestly, the only reason I thought we would wear this was because I thought they'd stay longer. Why can't plans ever work?"

"Ah, I know you. You're one of the trainers during the Music Festival—Wes right? Now that makes more sense why you're here." His eyes narrowed as he processed together why Wes and the other were standing before him.

For a minute, both Benga and Wes felt a chill in the air.

"We want Anto back, so excuse us as we get past you to get him." Wes motioned.

"I apologize, but you have no idea what you two boys are getting into." Sied finished as his Dragonite spread out his wings and flew straight towards a 1 vs 7 without an ounce of hesitation.

Benga and Wes saw the Dragonite clash with Ferland, before being pushed back and crashing into several booths.

Wes sweat dropped and glanced towards the tower. '_White, you better hurry!_'

[…]

Back in the tower,chaos was rampant as Inquisitor, Majus, and Warden were fighting back against the legion of grunts and one of the Seven Sages. Amongst all the quick and sudden movements to avoid a dozen or so attack, while counter attacking herself, Inquisitor noticed the boy and girl running up the stairs.

"Subject 5 is reaching higher ground. We need to detain him quickly!" Inquisitor spoke out with urgency before Mega Flygon unleashed a powerful Dragon Pulse to knock out a Liepard thinking it could hit them.

"Go Inquisitor! Majus and I can handle this!" Warden cried out as he and his Mega Pinsir and Mega Medicham descended on the group of Team Plasma members with Majus and his ghost Megas close behind them.

Inquisitor and her Mega Flygon chased after the group of Pokémon, but then the Torren Region Mega stopped as a large fist barely hit it, revealing Golurk returning into the fray and holding Inquisitor and Mega Flygon off.

She pointed her rifle at the ghost type. "You have no idea what you are doing do you?"

All of Anto's Pokémon and Jamie's, except Golurk, had caught up and climbed up to the very top of the stairs where they were now noticed a huge hole at the roof, and revealing it to be very foggy and cloudy.

To Anto's surprise, he swore he saw someone in the center of the highest floor.

… "_N?_"

The green haired boy and his Pokémon turned back towards the boy. It was then they noticed a large intimidating black dragon right behind the teen.

"Not the one I was expecting… but nonetheless this Pokémon you see before you is Zekrom, the legendary dragon of Ideals! And he has chosen me as his hero! With this, I am one step closer to achievi—"

"_I have no time for this! N, we need to get out of here fast!_" Anto cried as he and Jamie ran up towards him. But all of N's Pokémon, including Zekrom, growled at the mute.

"Are you so daft as to—… why are you wearing girls clothes?" N paused as he noticed the skirt Anto was wearing. He surely wasn't expecting, nor was this situation in the realm of his calculations, when one of the two potential trainers standing in his way to come to him at his most triumphant hour in girl clothes.

Even in a life and death situation, Anto can't catch a break can he?

"_It's a long story, but right now we need to get out of here!_" Anto told him with great urgency.

"**GAAAHHHH!?**" something flew up from the ground, revealing that it was Jamie's Golurk, who looked terribly injured and promptly fainted as he landed back down.

"Ah! Golurk!" Jamie, her Sylveon, and her Fletchinder all went towards her strong Pokémon.

"What's going on? … What is happening beneath us?" N asked as he started to hear the loud sounds of battling below him.

Zekrom's eyes sharpened and power started cackling towards his body as if to prepare for something.

Suddenly, Mega Flygon broke through the floor in an instant, surprising all those there. Then all of her Megas charged right for them with a powerful battle cry.

Anto and Jamie's Pokémon charged in as well to meet them head on.

Inquisitor aimed the Sniper rifle the second while everyone was about to battle towards Anto… ?

She tilted it away from Anto…

…Then fired.

Anto's mind raced faster than it ever did before. That angle would miss him for sure, so who—

He tilted his head at the widening and fearful eyes of N as the bullet came closer and closer.

Takezo was dueling against the Mega Cacturne.

Ohko was taking on the Mega Milotic.

Lily was handling the Mega Meganium to notice.

Sentinel was fighting against the Torren Region Mega Eevee.

Super Nut was already shielding against the Mega Stunfisk.

None of his Pokémon were prepared to stop that bullet in anyway. N would…

There was only one move left.

BANG!

…

**Crimson blood spilt on ancient stone…**

"A-A-A-AAANNNNTTTOOOOO!?" Jamie shrieked in absolute horror.

Everyone stared in shock except Inquisitor.

They all saw Anto… getting shot in the head for pushing N out of the way of the bullet…

* * *

**{Author Notes?}**

**Do you hear it? **

**It rumbles deep within the confines of its prison… a spark has come to its long listless and lifeless body.**

**A faint glow of purple glows in the unending darkness.**

**Ancient ties are pulled and stretched after millenniums of stillness.**

**Its dreamless sleep is coming to an end.**

**Soon… very soon…**

**These chains shall break and he shall be free once more…**

**And this time, there is no dragon legend to stop it.**


	39. 39: The Madness of Men and Demons Pt 2

Episode 39: The Ultimate Dragonite. (The madness of men and demons part 2)

[On the very top of Twist Mountain...]

The large black jet de-cloaked and landed slowly as three cloaked figures waited for its descent as the wind blew on their long robed clothes.

As the plane landed, the back doors opened up revealing a team of bounty hunters led by the most fearsome, the most infamous bounty hunter the Pokémon World ever saw.

"Hunter J, a pleasure doing business with you." The tallest cloaked figure bowed politely.

The silver haired bounty hunter looked back. "I have your package."

Out of the ship, came two floating objects: one was a frozen gold Dodrio and the other was a girl.

"Yellow of Viridian City and her Dodrio. She's all yours." Hunter J motioned her crew and then the released the frozen gold Pokémon and Human.

Instantly, the smallest cloaked figure raised their hand and made Yellow and the Dodrio freeze in air. Hunter J's men started murmuring about how their clients this time were people who can use psychic powers. The middle man pointed his hand as well, levitating an empty Poké Ball and recalling the Dodrio before making more Poké Balls float off the girl for him to hold.

"G-Give them…" Yellow weakly called out before the smallest cloaked figure slammed her into the ground.

"She's still conscious? I guess that's a hero for you, despite being suspended animation for a few days, they can still function to an extent." It sounded like a young girl was speaking from the smallest cloaked person.

The Tallest man picked up a suit case and opened it up towards Hunter J, revealing a new scouter. "A gift for a job well done."

"I know this…" Hunter J removed her visor for a second before placing the scouter near her ear.

"It's a Battle Augmented Realizer or Battle AR for short. Along with a Synergy Stone, it allows a power boost to any of your Pokémon in battle known as Synergy Burst. Synergy burst allows even unevolved Pokémon to take on Mega level Pokémon," The man closed the case and motioned the middle man to open another case with them to Hunter J. "Then add a Key Stone and Salmanceite into the mix…"

Hunter J smiled as she received the gifts. "How generous."

"Consider these gifts for a job well done." The cloaked figure spoke as the three left with a now unconscious Yellow in tow.

Hunter J removed the Battle AR and went back into her ship. She had a call to make soon.

[...]

There was something wrong.

"**Gah!**" Umbreon cried as the towering dragon type slammed him away with his tail.

Even though it was a seven on one…

Delta Wartortle jumped in the sky and launched a flurry of Dark Pulses that zoomed towards the Dragonite.

It happened again: the wrongness of it all—the bizarreness of it all.

The Dragonite was in one area, and without even blinking, he had suddenly closed a hundred meter gap without anyone noticing! Not only were they caught off guard, but the Dragonite used this moment to Thunder Punch Delta Wartortle through a tree and into the forest nearby.

They were staring right at the Pokémon, how could he dodge the attack, but get in such close range without anyone noticing!?

"Benga, you've got powers! Can't you sense anything or something!?" Wes screamed.

"You're mistaking me for an Aura user, Wes! Last time I checked, no one here has Aura or a Lucario nearby!"

Sied spoke out to them after hearing their conversation. "I've met Aura Users, trust me, they're all a bunch of showoffs. They spoil most things, but when you really need them, they're never around."

"I assumed Aura Users were rare." The Orreian thief calmly played despite starting to sweat. His stupid uniform he was wearing was not helping with how stuff it was.

"They're uncommon, but not rare. Though I can't say the same about you two after this." Sied brought up his hands and snapped his fingers. His green Dragonite started… spinning?

"Wes! That's Dragon Dance!" Benga shouted out.

The two reacted quickly, having Rei and Espeon fire long range attacks right for the dragon type. However, it was too late as the stage two evolved dragon flew faster into the sky and then descended down like a bullet, slamming Elektross into the ground and knocking him out cold.

If now wasn't a time to use the big guns, then they were screwed.

Espeon fired Psycho Star, his old Fusion move of Psybeam and Swift. Psychic stars rapidly shot towards the Dragon type and exploded on impact.

"Umbreon, Protect!" The brother of the psychic type quickly launched a protect surrounding him and his brother—just in time to block a punch from hitting the Espeon.

Benga pointed. "Now Ferland!"

The earth cracked up in one split second, and out shot up Ferland with a blazing Dragon Claw along his fin as he slashed it upward—

… And actually land on the Dragonite which caused the green dragon to stagger back!

"H-Hey! We hit him!" Benga cried out as they saw the Dragonite wince from the super effective attack.

"Keep your guard up!" Wes told Benga, but in the back of his mind, his mind was racing on how they were able to inflict damage at that time—wait… that attack made contact almost instantly after he did that strange teleport thing.

The boy from Orre quickly went to Benga and whispered into his ear. "I think I figured it out; whatever strange instant teleporting move that Dragonite can do, it actually has a window of time where it can't do that for a few seconds after usage."

"Is that why our attack went through? We hit it before it recharged?" Benga repeated back softly as the two stared down Sied.

"It's the best I've got right now. Man, Anto was the one who trained in last second strikes… this is so not my style of battling…"

"You two boys are far smarter than all of Team Plasma put together if you're already plotting something and managed to scratch Dragonite. While commendable, I'm done playing around." Sied took a strange scouter like object from his coat and placed on his ear.

Benga noticed a stone glowing around Seid's brooch. "Wes, I think he has a Mega Stone!"

"What!?"

"No, there is no Mega Stone currently found for Dragonite," Seid showed them the diamond shaped object he was wearing. "However, the Ferrum Region has something with equal power to that of Mega Evolution: it's called Synergy Burst. Like Mega Evolution, but for Ferrum, you need a Battle Augmented Realizer," He pointed to the scouter like object. "As a substitute for a key stone—"

Sied quickly turned, pressing something in the cuffs of his suit, and summoned a Protect barrier—revealing that he also had those machines that could reproduce Pokémon Moves, and stopping a Dark Pulse attack from hitting him from the back.

Delta Wartortle looked surprised.

"How did he know that!?" Benga screamed as he didn't even see the Delta Pokémon sneak back into the fight.

"Attacking my while I monologue and give exposition? Kid, I like you already," Sied laughed as his barrier went down and looked back towards Wes and Benga. "Alright then, long story short: Synergy Burst is a power boost just like Mega Evolution but the best part is that it can apply to every single Pokémon available to their trainer."

"Uh can you go back into monologuing again?" Benga weakly pointed his finger up.

They all looked towards Dragonite—who had just finished using Roost! Sied was distracting them so his Dragonite could set up again!

A rainbow aura gathered around the dragon and flying type before exploding into a literal burst of energy that forced everyone but Seid to shield themselves from the awakening force.

In a burst of amazing speed, Dragonite swiped his tail, swatting away Ferland, Espeon, and Umbreon away.

"Man, I thought the movies were kidding with how the bad guys always get the upper hand." Benga muttered under his breath.

"Yeah and by now we get saved by some improbable and coincidental means… any time now…"

"**Not to worry, friends!**" "**We're still here!**" The Zwelious heads called out.

Benga and Wes looked at each other with defeat.

Sied fixed his uniform like he was finished with business. "Dragonite, take care of them." He spoke then Dragonite spread out his cartoon-like, small wings and flew towards the twin headed dragon. The CEO turned his back on them and took out his phone.

In a flash, the Dragonite slammed into the Zwelious, making the dragon hit into both boys, and knocking them both a few good feet into the air before tumbling to the ground like rag dolls in a violent manner.

"… Where is that Delta Pokemon?" Sied looked around, seeing his business done with the two trainers. "Nite, keep an eye out, I'll call for security—"

"Sir!"

Sied looked over to the voice calling out to him and widened in surprise.

"Pokémon Rangers? You sure act quick." The muscular and large man spoke to the two young Pokémon Rangers with a small Pichu with a guitar on the ground.

"We were in the area and received word that you were under attack by Team Plasma, so we decided to help. Your security team led us here when we arrived." The boy with brown spike hair spoke out.

"I see. Well my Dragontite and I handled against them," The CEO eyed Wes and Benga for a second. "You can find two of their members over there on beneath that Zwelious and around those unconscious Pokémon."

The girl, she looked familiar to the purple haired gentleman, went over towards the two. The boy spoke out.

"Thank you sir! We can handle it from here. You can get to safety."

"Right, I need to check on my employees and see if they are safe." Sied walked away with a phone in his hand.

The boy turned around to the girl. "Hey, you heard him, let's tie up these guys and—huh?"

The female Pokémon Ranger was near one of them with a shocked look in her face as she was looking at one of the Team Plasma Grunts.

One of them started to wake up.

"Uhh… oh gosh I'm gonna be feeling this for the next week…" Benga complained as he pushed Zwelious, who was on top of him, to the side and groggily got back up.

… Then had handcuffs were placed on him.

"Wha?" Benga looked up to the male Ranger.

"You're under arrest for threatening the peace and endangering civilians! You have the right to remain silent anything you say can be used against you in the state of—"

"Whoa! Hey! I am not getting arrested!" Benga spoke out as he jumped up and tried to pry off the handcuffs.

"Right, because you _are_ under arrest!"

"Oh for the love of Arceus!" Wes spoke out with his eyes closed as he put a hand on his head to somehow stop the ringing in his head. "What the heck is with you police officers being so horrible at your freaking jobs?"

"Maybe if idiots like you weren't doing stupid and reckless things in the first place, our jobs would be a whole lot easier."

The boy from Orre recognized that annoying voice. His orange and yellowish eyes looked into familiar and rather disappointed, chocolate colored eyes.

"… Hey Nerd."

"Wes." Summer continued to leer at how casual Wes was being.

Meanwhile, the other two stared. "Summer, you know this guy?" The male ranger finally spoke out.

"Ben, meet Wes, Wes meet Ben."

"Sup goggle head number 2."

"Wait, he's the guy that I've been hearing about?!" Ben, the brown haired male ranger pointed dramatically to the tall teen/young adult.

"Oh you're Ben? Jeeze, Nerd, I thought you had better tastes." Wes' comment was 'ignored' as she quickly placed cuffs on him.

"Oh right, I forgot. You're still under house arrest now that I'm back—idiot." Summer smiled sweetly despite the amazing amount of venom behind her voice.

Wes looked at the cuffs in his hands. Meh, he's escaped worse... "Why am I the idiot?" He played along while secretly trying to pick the lock.

"Have you seen what you're wearing!?" Summer pointed to the obvious Team Plasma uniform he was currently wearing.

"In my defense, I thought it would be a good idea at the time."

"How the heck is dressing up as terrorists and attacking civilians considered a freaking good idea!?"

Wes pointed his one of his hands up and opened his mouth. … Nothing came out before he closed again and thought about it for a second.

"Long story made short: it's an Anto thing."

Summer rolled her eyes. Was it really too much to ask for things to change within a short amount of time? "Where is Anto anyway?"

Before the conversation could go on, they all looked back up towards the tower because of a loud, deafening explosion.

[?]

"**Finally, you're back!**" Hoopa greeted as he handed a bag of popcorn to Anto sitting in the same theater beside him.

The mute looked at himself and quickly reached for his head. "W-What? But the last thing I remember was—"

"**Hey Human,**" Hoopa interrupted Anto again. "**You might wanna look at the stage again.**"

When Anto did, he was not expecting to see two cosmic like birds perched on the sides of the stage: a giant Braviary and a Swanna… but they looked strange, or at least as strange as all the other Guardians. They all looked like Pokemon, except they looked less colorful, more bland, but much more ferocious and less animated for some reason...

"**There are two guardians here, yet they aren't attacking me anymore.**"

Despite that comment, the theater around them started to darken, and as the curtains parted, there was a large door standing right in the middle of an empty stage.

The two avian guardians looked at the door then watched their gazes on Anto, waiting for his decision.

"**This is it,**" Hoopa floated up from his seat. "**Behind that door is the master of this dimension. Then I can finally destroy this place!**"

"I'm sorry, what?" Anto asked but Hoopa ignored him again and motioned him to hurry it up.

Still, the brown haired boy clearly recalled what happened before all of this.

He was shot in the head. He should be dead, but here he was… Dreaming?

"_Worry __not_." Anto looked towards the Swanna guardian. "_We are still here, you are still here. As promised, we shall always watch over you.__"_

"Promise? What promise?" The boy wondered. He made a promise with these guys? He thought he was a normal kid, how did he come across these guys?

"**Hey are you coming or what!? I can't open this door without you!**"

Anto looked back at the dual cosmic entities after looking back at Hoopa. They weren't even talking any more.

Cautiously, Anto came up and opened the door. A bright light shined as the door opened, blinding the boy for a second.

As his sight slowly returned… he realized he was back at the beached island from the very beginning. Specifically, he was back at the center of that small beached island.

"W-What?" Anto asked as he looked around. "We're back at the beginning?"

"**No this is different…**" Hoopa mused as he floated on ahead.

The amnesiac followed the ghost and psychic type back out into the beach that was where… he…

… He…

Saw…

…

There was a person standing out and looking out towards the sea as the waves swallowed and spit out his feet.

This person turned back his familiar looking head and gave a similar smile.

"Antony Baker, a pleasure to meet you at last."

The one staring right back at Anto was...

Himself?

There was someone who looked exactly like him in appearance and face standing right in front of him without a mirror.

"W-Who are you?"

"**Hey you! You've got a lot of nerve doing what you're doing! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get here!?**"

Suddenly, Hoopa froze mid air.

"Excuse me for a bit, but this is meant to be private. You don't mind do you?" The other Anto spoke to the now frozen and seemingly unresponsive Hoopa. "Now then… Anto right? Once more, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've been watching you and may I say you are one of the more unfortunate humans I've seen so far—though in hindsight, this has been an interesting period where I've even grown so close to such mundane creatures, so perhaps there are simply others I do not know about." The look alike mused with strange eloquence.

"Who are you?" Finally came out of the Real Anto's stunned mouth.

"A fair question," He gave a slight pause in his talk before smirking. "But does it deserve an Answer?" The strange master of this dimension countered with a question of his own.

"I would like an explanation to all this weird stuff, yes!" The boy screamed.

"Well the bare basics are that you are the aftermath of a very ancient battle." The fake Anto looked away from the boy before starting to walk down the shore with his shoes in his hands. "What were you expecting me to give you details?"

The boy paused as so many more questions popped up his head. "You aren't going to, are you?"

"Well, you're going to wake up soon aren't you? I don't unfortunately have the time to explain even if I wanted to."

Those words surprised the young boy. "Wake up? I got shot in the head!" Wait but, he was feeling confused wasn't he? Isn't confusion something... for the living? Was he really not dead? If so, what is this place really?

Fake Anthony turned back quickly before he laughed calmly at the original.

His quick laugh ended with a soft sigh as he gave a smirk towards the confused boy. "Dores nul paradaku meil dramietre. Nul beiah meritak blaso doret-nalagx. Jeromajuixsadad, borkea nop-luedentureera. (Ah you poor child, if only you could understand how deep this rabbit hole went down. As you are right now, death will forever be an stranger to you.)"

With a wink from the stranger, the boy vanished, and the Fake boy looked towards the Hoopa with interested smirk.

"Hmm, the ability to go to anywhere in you want?"

[…]

They had all paused as they saw the boy fall into the ancient, dusty floors of the ancient tower.

N stared in shock at the fact that a Human, a being he loathed to the very core for hurting Pokémon, had just saved his life without a single hesitation.

It didn't make sense! He didn't make sense! He was a trainer like the rest of them! He enslaved Pokémon and refused to listen to their 'voice'! … Right? Anto… this boy had always confused him to no end—he never could understand just what this stranger could fit into to his grand equation, but here he was: dead instead of him for taking a bullet meant for him.

N slowly reached a hand out towards the boy.

Zekrom roared angrily.

"**Stay away from that abomination!**"

N looked back at the legendary dragon, surprised to see utter rage and anger coming from the Dragon's form with blue electricity cackling around it.

"**Step aside as I erase that filth from the face of the earth!**" Zekrom declared as he set his claw ablaze.

N didn't truly like humans, but there was something more to this than he understood. That tone Zekrom was showing… it wasn't just anger… was that… was that fear? From a Pokémon with the power to destroy the world?

Zekrom was then blindsided by a Dragon Pulse attack, revealing the Mega Flygon and Inquisitor charging right for the body.

Zekrom quickly flew back despite taking on the blow from the mega and rammed right into him and his rider, sending her flying back and forcing her to land on the ground.

The female quickly looked towards her other Torren Region Megas. "Do not let Zekerom destroy Subject 5! Retrieve him and leave now!"

"Wait what? What's going on!? Zekrom!?" N shouted but his new legendary ignored him and ran straight for Anto's body with a deadly dragon Claw lit up ready to tear his body into ash with one swipe.

Another blast of energy, but this time it being a Moonblast from mega Milotic, stopped the legendary from annihilating the dead boy.

The creepy Mega Cacturne came on top of the body, but N having enough of it, stood between the grass and dark mega and the fallen boy.

"Take no step further monster!" Dear Arceus, he was cursing a Pokémon and protecting a human? What in blazes was going on? Armageddon!?

The Cacturne paid him no mind by raising his spike towards the green haired teen, only to get side smashed in the head by Takezo, the Patrat of the boy when the normal type swung his wooden blade as he was in the air.

"**Anto!**" Takezo cried out as Jamie, and the rest of the boy's Pokémon came up.

"I-I'm sorry, but he was kill—"

"_AAAHHHHHH!_"

"AAAHHH!?"

"WWWAAAAHHH!?"

Jamie and N screamed right after they heard more screaming suddenly coming from right behind them.

It was Anto! He was alive!

"W-W-W-W-What!?" N pointed dramatically at him. He had clearly seen a bullet blow out his brain and flew through his skull—there was even the blood on the boy's clothes to prove that it happened!

But how, in all of the cosmos, was Anto now sitting straight up with not even a trace or a scar on his head of where the bullet entered and left!?

"A-Anto!? You're alive!?"

"What!? He regenerated that fast!? Even Subject 1 can't heal that quickly!" Inquisitor yelled madly before pointing the gun back at Anto and firing in quick succession.

Super Nut jumped in and used Protect to deflect the bullets aiming right for the boy again.

"**You will not escape me a second time, monster! You die this day!**" Zekrom yelled as he used a scary amount of energy towards Anto and his Pokémon.

A quick thought raced through everyone in that group: why was a legendary Pokémon so bent on destroying Anto?

"Don't let them escape!" Inquisitor screamed as all her Pokémon surrounded and closed in on the group nearby the boy, meaning that on one side a rage filled legendary was rushing at them with a destructive amount of energy and on the other end, Six Mega Pokémon were straight out to kill him, but for some reason preserve his body?

"**I may not know what's happening, but we should leave, now!**" Takezo spoke out before looking towards Sentinel.

"**Hold on to something quick!**" Sentinel shouted out.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the floor below them, Warden and Magus were defeating the last of the Team Plasma Grunts and were zeroing in on one of the Seven Sages.

"No choice then, Shadow Traid! Your masters beckon!" The old man shouted as three black grabbed men appeared.

"These must be Mega Pokémon…" One of the three men spoke.

"It seems…" The one on the left took out an Ultra Ball

"We must bring out the big guns." At the third one's last phrase the three all threw out their Pokémon at the incoming Mega Pokémon of Medicham, Pinsir, Banette, and Gengar.

To the two Agents, they were shocked to see Unova's Trio legends: Tornadus, Landorus, and Thundurus, all staring down at them and their megas like insignificant flies.

"Gotta hand it to technology, even our enemies can make use of that crap." Warden muttered under his mask.

"Why do da bad guys, always get the good stuff?" Majus complained.

"We kinda of did sell them that stuff in the first place." Warden whispered as he threw out more of his Mega Pokémon, so Majus did the same. And then it became a power struggled between 12 Mega Pokémon and three powerful Legendary Pokémon.

However, no one noticed that as they all clashed…

White felt the ground shake beneath her then looked up to see strange blasts and tremors coming from above. "What's going on up there?!"

Kryx looked at her scanner that suspiciously looked like a 3DS. "**Well for one, a lot—and I mean a lot of destructive energy is pouring out from all over the top of the tower, so it's definitely going to collapse horribly and kill potentially anyone left in this place within the next few minutes. But there's good news!**"

The girl with a cap side stepped some falling debris. "How!? This place is too big to find Anto and Jamie, and if they are on the top, we can't reach them in time!"

"**The wild energy output is short circuiting all of the psionic disruptors! I can teleport us again!**" Kryx spoke out before grabbing White and teleporting in an instant.

After the titanic clash between Mega and Legendary, a group of people suddenly appeared out of thin air and fell into the ground.

"**Se-Sentinel! Why are we out!?**" Lily cried as they all got back up.

"**That weird energy made me drop the attack! Not my fault!**" The delta cried out.

"I… I have no idea what's going on!" N screamed out as he removed his hand from Jamie who grabbed his at the heat of the moment.

"Welcome to my world." Jamie commented quickly.

"Lord N!?" Some of the remaining Team Plasma screamed out loud. "What are you doing down here!?"

"Majus, it's Subject 5! Fire quickly!" Warden screamed as all of their megas and guns fired towards the boy.

Kryx and White managed to appear right as the attack flew right towards everyone.

"**How about NO!**" She yelled and used all of her might to teleport everyone she knew out of the tower.

The attacks kept flying and headed right for Team Plasma. To counter, the last of Team Plasma and the Shadow Triad launched their best attacks once more, and caught Lord N out of the way of the fire.

From outside, the tower exploded from the sides, making it start to fall into the sea and across the opening and now empty fair.

"What the!?" Summer yelled as she and the others looked up at the starting to fail tower.

Suddenly, a large group of Pokémon and people appeared right in front of the four people in (different) uniforms.

Summer pointed to a certain boy who stood out despite the colorful cast of people.

"Anto!? Wh-why are you wearing a dress and skirt? And why is there so much blood on it!?" She yelled worriedly.

"That crossdresser is Anto!?" Ben shouted in shock.

"_I really can't catch a break, can I?_" Anto sighed before he suddenly felt something heavy right behind him.

Takezo acted swifter than anyone could expect and swiped at Anto's feet, knocking them off and allowing Anto to fall into the ground to avoid getting hit with a Thunderpunch that would have hit his head. Just as quickly, Ohko was the one who kicked the hammering fist, causing a small shockwave at the impact of the attack.

The green Dragonite went back towards a angry looking CEO.

"You are not escaping! Dragonite, Outrage!"

The Mighty Dragon lit himself ablaze and with blinding speed once more, exploded in the dust cloud , creating another powerful shockwave that blew the entire stands and remaining objects into the air.

However, nothing else but the stands and random objects nearby were sent flying, meaning that the group was already gone before the attack was launched.

Sied cursed before looking up at the now collapsing tower. He quickly, called his agents. "Report! Warden, Majus, Inquisitor!?"

"… Sorry sir! He got away. I had him, but Zekrom was awakened and went into a flurry trying to eradicate Subject 5's body."

"Save it, get out of the tower, I see it failing right now… but don't feel too bad. After this, Subject five can no longer return to the tower."

Suddenly, the Green Dragonite glanced over towards an empty space where a tree had fallen over. His sharpened sense could have sworn someone was just there…

Farther away from even the sharpened senses of the Dragonite, a cloaked figure with two strange colored Pokémon consisting of a Gallade and Lucario stood on top of a cliff.

"**Milord, the tower was destroyed… all of our preparations…**" The red and black Gallade worded.

"**Dang! We just needed Reshiram's Essence and we could have pulled it off!**" The black and red Lucario spat.

"_Hmm, true I was not expecting this outcome. However, this is still salvageable. It would just require… some plumbing…_"

[Later…]

"OK… this… this is a lot to take in," Ben spoke out as he stood up. "I mean, I knew something weird was going on before I took this mission with Summer to find Kieth and Jack again, but… man… wow…"

The entire group was now at the Moor of Icirrus. After Kryx teleporting them back to the Pokémon Center, everyone packed up their things and quickly left the red building as news spread of the collapsing tower. They all figured staying there was the first place Dimension enterprise would look and needed a safer place to hide and explain what on earth had just happened.

"I-I've been traveling with Anto for a while, but I still can't believe it!" White spoke out before looking to Jamie. "Anto… got back up from being shot in the head?"

"I-It's true! I was there! N was there! I was so confused on how that happened…" She explained.

Everyone then slowly looked to the said boy, who was staring deep into a nearby pond in these wetlands.

"So… I uhh know this kinda breaks the mood… but doesn't this mean Anto is a zombie?" Benga slowly spoke up.

"_You actually have a point._" They all quickly turned back to Anto as he walked back in his own clothes. "_I… I finally thought of something. We now all know that I… or at least I am related to Anthony Baker, a teenage boy who died almost a year ago. … Actually, before I continue, Wes, you did some research, how did I—Anthony die specifically?_"

The Orre boy rubbed the back of his head. If he didn't have a head ache now, he would definitely get one as this conversation continued on—he just felt like that would happen. "According to an old news article, Anthony died from falling off the top of the Celestial Tower. Police said that he slipped and lost his balance near the edge."

"What was he doing there in the first place?" White asked.

"According to friends and family, he loved to spend time there and enjoyed the view. I even recall Skyla closing the gym the week he died since she saw him like a little brother." Wes added in.

The black haired mute let that sink in before continuing. "_Back to what I was saying then: the fact remains Antony was dead and shortly after… I came to Unova with almost no trace of my past except a now stolen necklace from Dimension Enterprise._"

"And we know that your—or umm Anthony's dad worked in Dimension Enterprise. There's no way that isn't just some weird coincidence," White pointed out. "They must have found about Anthony's death and did something with the body."

"But what exactly would an enterprise on mundane things and transportation want with a random dead boy?" Ben offered out. "I mean, there have been rumors of Dimension Enterprise being a part of the black market, but not even the Ragners have found any leads."

"I saw… I saw Anto get…" Jamie struggled with her words. "Anto was shot. Right in the head, but then he came back up! Doesn't that mean…!?"

No one was expecting Anto to pull out a steak knife… then cut his wrist open!?

"Whoa Anto!? What are you doing!?" Summer yelled as she grabbed the knife and quickly tried to get something to stop the bleeding.

Only… the bleeding had quickly stopped by the time she had touched his hand. The blood was fresh, but the wound was closed up as if it was never there.

"_Immortality._" That was the only word Anto said as he moved his sleeve up to cover his wrist after wiping the blood away.

He looked at all of his friends once more, not noticing that Jamie had her head down lower than necessary. "_Dimension Enterprise has always called me Subject 5, as in there were other subjects before me. I think I've finally realized what they're doing…" _

_"They're working on creating immortals._"

* * *

**{Author notes.}**

**Bomb shell, after Bomb shell! (Also, I must remind you all to take care and to not post spoilers in the reviews. Amazingly, no one has done so with major plot spoilers yet, but still.)**

**I bet you all are so confused at all the revelations brought up by this chapter! … If one can call them revelations in the first place…**

**Well of course, Team Plasma escaped the Tower, but this is one of the instances where Anto's journey has actually caused collateral damage to cities and important locations. How does a destroyed tower now play into this story? More than you realize.**

**Sied's Dragonite has proven to be a cut above the rest, using a power that somehow defies logic. What could it be? And how will he react towards letting Anto slip through Dimension Enterprise again?**

**On a more meta level, with Anto being, 'quote' 'unquote' (immortal), you would expect that this means that the story has no sense of danger. With Anto being unable to die (currently) it sort of down plays most of the dangerous situations he is in since he can't die (currently). I've been reflecting on this, but I hope that by revealing that he is immortal puts more emphasis on the mystery side of this story and adds more character development. After all, most of the action in this story comes from Pokémon battles and chase scenes, but not much else. I'm think that making the plot more complex, in exchange for lessening some tension in action, would hopefully work. **

**Still, I hope that even if Anto cannot die (currently) I can show that the stakes can still go higher.**

**After all… this has been in the making for 10,000 years. (Story wise, I wasn't born that long ago. Who knew such an innocent and trouble bound adventure went down this deep?)**

**Thanks for reading folks. Hope you enjoyed. **


	40. Ep 40: A Thorn in a Rose

Episode 40: At the End of the Day.

[Extra: A conversation]

All things considered, they may not have been winning, but they were certainly not losing.

"I apologize sir. Zekrom recognized the essence flowing out of the boy the moment I shot him. We couldn't allow Zekrom to destroy the body and potentially let the seed escape."

"I understand Inquisitor. Our target has been strangely elusive and resourceful. We might have to try a different approach in catching him." Sied sat behind his mahogany desk, looking at the side of that desk where all the papers from the police reports, the money lost on their front object, the issues of legally opening into the ruins, and it being now destroyed from a terrorist attack. There was so much paper work to be done, but it wasn't all that bad.

"Man, we have our Move Gauntlets don't we? What's stopping us from just using Teleport, to grab the kid in surprise, and teleport right back out and into HQ? That would have saved us so much trouble from the beginning." Warden complained as he sat in a very expensive looking couch.

"First of all, we never knew were Subject Five was specifically to perform such a thing. Second of all, we all know that there is at least five second delay between repeating the same move twice. We can use other moves in succession, but can't use it more than twice in a row within those five seconds. It's been something our scientists have been working on. You know this." Inquisitor explained.

"What we gonna do now, Boss?" Majus asked.

"For now, I need help with all this stupid paper work. The Media is eating this newest debacle up like a starving Snorlax in the biggest all you can eat buffet ever. There's press, there's insurance, there's police demands on what happened—and I haven't touched on the expenses part. Since we scared Subject 5 away from the tower, we could all use this moment to catch a breather." He put his hands together and thought deeply.

"But we still have to get him Boss. Even if we prevented him from entering, there's the alarming fact that none of the previous Subjects have even tried to make contact with Subject 5! They're supposed to be obsessed over the Seed, but it's painfully obvious they're planning something!" Inquisitor yelled passionately.

There was a sudden beep coming from a phone nearby Sied on his desk.

"I believe that our answer has come." Sied calmly spoke as he pushed a button, closing all windows, deactivating his cameras, lowering the lights, and locking the doors to his office in Unova.

The phone shot out a holographic projector of a giant screen with a woman on it.

"Apologies for the delay, Mr. Dimension, I had to finish up with another client." Hunter J answered from the other line.

"I suppose that is fair. But does this mean that you accept the terms of this job?" Sied asked professionally.

"I do. I will hunt down the boy as long as you pay me." And she did want to try out those new toys of hers…

[…]

Anto needed some alone time. That much was certain, as he walked along the Moor with Lily, he kept deep into his thoughts.

The shiny Pokémon was actually a bit worried for her trainer. He seemed so distant now, but how exactly could she help? She wanted to give him his space, but she hated seeing him like this. To be honest, she even knew why out of all his Pokémon, she was the one out on guard for him.

She was the least vivid of his Pokémon. Compared to all the others, she was normal, and she didn't mind that. It's just that this little back of her mind thought that Anto let her out because he knew that she couldn't try to talk him out of his stupor not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't. She wasn't as wise and experienced as Takezo, as openhearted or lovingly head strong like Ohko, not as simple minded and loyal as Sentinel, not as passionate and excited as Kryx, and definitely not as heroic or continually bettering herself like Super Nut would be.

She was just someone who lived at the expense of another's death. To herself, she was actually the most flawed out of all Anto's Pokémon and she loathed it.

"_Hmm?_" Anto caught Lily's attention as the evolved grass type looked towards her trainer.

Then the grass type followed where her trainer was looking to see a large boulder that looked to be cut in half right down the middle.

"**What do you think caused that?**"

It was then the mute noticed how smooth the inside of the boulder was when it was split down the middle. "_It reminds me about Takezo, it looks so cleanly cut._"

"So what? A swordsman did this?" The grass type offered.

It was at this point, Anto and Lily started to notice a strange noise coming from behind the split boulder. Their brains had recognized that sound in the distance since Ohko had been doing that almost every night when he slept so soundly.

Someone was snoring.

Walking past the chilly air and cut boulder, Anto and his Lilligant spotted a blue and red, four legged Pokémon sleeping in the grass and inhaling loudly as his hooves twitched every other time.

"**I've never seen a Pokémon like that before.**" Lily noted.

"_It's Keldeo, he's actually a Legendary Pokémon and the fourth member of The Swords of Justice._" The mute responded quickly. Once more, his mind seemed to know more than it let on. This made him wonder what exactly Dimension Enterprise did that allowed him to recognize even legendary and rare Pokémon as if he had seen them every day.

However, Lily's pink orbs widened at the familiar title, The Swords of Justice. If this one really was one of them, wouldn't that mean the others were close by?

Lily looked around, making her trainer raise his brow at the odd action until he recalled a rather important memory not too long ago.

(**"**_**I never got to tell her that she was wrong!**_")

Lily was always searching for the Swords because of something in her past. She had lost someone and wanted to speak to them for killing her friend.

He didn't know what to say, it looked like Lily actually looked… angry… her leaf fists were coiled up and her eyes were sharp and didn't have that trademark sarcasm and annoyance she usually held.

"**Waaahhh…**" The two turned back as they saw Keldeo waking up and smacking his lips. He gave a great big yawn and trailed his lazy eyes towards Anto and Lily. "**Oh, hello!**" He smiled in a friendly voice.

"_Uhh hey?_" The mute smiled back easily while Lily just scowled. The boy didn't want to ruin the mood of the young Sword of Justice so he quickly continued on. "_Y-You're Keldeo right?_"

The young colt Pokémon stood up quickly from the ground with a jump. "**Whoa! How do you know my name!?**"

"_I… heard of it._" The mute figured that wasn't exactly a lie. "_I just don't quite recall where though. But it's only fair that I give you my name since I know you: I'm Anto and this here is Lily._"

"**Oh hey! Anto? That sounds a lot like Ash! Do you know Ash!?**" Keldeo bounced around and had his tail wagging despite being a colt.

"_I haven't met him, but I'm a friend of a friend of his, and I have heard of him._" Anto explained.

"**Aww man that's so cool! I haven't seen him in a while! He helped me achieve the power of Secret Sword! Oh that reminds me!**" the excited water and fighting type made himself stand still and did his best to try and look dignified. "**I am Keldeo, a Sword of Justice! How can I help you today?!**"

The black haired boy chuckled. "_You sound like a telemarketer._"

Keldeo visibly deflated from that. "**Wait what!? But I've been practicing my epic Sword of Justice Debut Speech for a week now! I'm supposed to sound cool!**"

Anto then laughed. "_Well, if it makes you feel better, you already did help me a bit._" Talking to the energetic Pokémon had lifted up his spirits especially from awhile ago.

However, Lily became increasingly more annoyed as the conversation went along. She especially didn't like how easily Anto was getting friendly with. "**… Hey, where are the other Swords anyway?**"

"**They had some business to do, but they said they would come pick me up later! I just recently became a proper Sword of Justice, you know!**"

Lily folded her arms and looked away, rolling her eyes as she did. Anto sensed the tone of her air, but it looked like Keldeo didn't.

Quickly he took out Takezo's Poké Ball. "_Do you mind if I bring a friend out? He's a different type of swordsman, but I think he would benefit on how you do your sword play._"

The young colt sounded excited at the idea of meeting another swordsman, so Anto brought out Takezo and introduced the two.

"**Huh? Aren't you a Patrat? Are you really a swordsman?**" Keldeo asked as he tilted his head.

"**That was rude you know?**" Lily told the water type in a scolding tone.

The water type straightened up. "**Oh whoops! My bad.**"

Takezo just let it go with a simple wave. "**To be honest, many have questioned if I really was a swordsman. In reality, I am just someone who studies the way of a human martial arts.**"

Keldeo's head titled even further. "**Wha?**"

"**Yes, yes I am one,**" Takezo said before looking at the split boulder. "**Though I am not one capable of something like this in one move.**"

Keldeo smiled and huffed his chest up. "**Yep! I totally did that with my new Secret Sword move! Though I still am working on this whole using the power to help rather than fight. I mean I can do it, but it was more of a life and death situation…**"

Takezo patted one of Keldeo's legs. "**How about you show me? We'll go to a different spot and you can show me about your sword play.**"

"**I know just the place!**" Keldeo ran excitedly ahead as Takezo walked on to follow, leaving Anto and Lily alone.

… Anto sat down on the slightly wet grass and looked over to Lily, who turned away from him.

"_Wow this grass is wetter than I thought it would be. Figures Keldeo could sleep fine on it—he's a water Pokémon._"

Lily stayed silent.

"_I still remember what you told me,_" The boy started. "_I am really sorry for what happened to you._"

Shiny Pokémon turned to the boy sitting. "**Aren't you supposed to be asking what's wrong and telling me off for acting so mean?**"

"_I'm like what? 14 years old and you're expecting me to somehow act like an adult? Besides, I don't think forcing you to face your problems is something I can do. Heck, look at me! Until just a while ago, I was brooding over the fact that I'm now immortal and a monstrous abomination of nature with secrets even I don't know after potentially being stolen from my normal life! But now I'm here, sitting on wet grass, and trying to cheer up my grass type Pokémon?_"

Lily looked down. "**I didn't like it when you were brooding…**"

Anto paused for a second. "_And I don't like it when you're brooding either._"

…

…

"_Ha…haha… hahahahaha…_" The amnesiac started to laugh suddenly after a few seconds of quiet time. His grass type asked him what the laughter was for and he, after calming down a bit, answered, "_Well I just realized something. Here we are, trying to brood against the world for being stupid to us, and we can't even do that because a person we care about is also feeling bad about their own troubles and we don't want that other person to feel bad!_"

The grass type raised a brow at that wording.

"_I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's hard really hard for me to hate and complain about my life, when I see someone else suffering as well. They make me want to help them instead of care about myself. And I really, really want to complain._"

"**Look on the bright side at least you're not haunted by guilt and shame.**" Lily scoffed before sitting down next to black haired boy with brown eyes. "**The grass is wet.**"

"_It's called the wetlands for a reason._"

They paused for another second.

"**I just… I just… it's just not fair,**" Lily turned to Anto. "**Why can life be so cruel when you know you haven't done something worth such misfortune?**"

Now the boy raised his brow, he could probably relate to that, but he was missing some context to why Lily was saying.

The grass type then explained her past. Back when she was still a Petilil, Lily was a rather adventurous girl when she was young. She dreamed of being like the stories her friends told her where there were these beings called the Swords of Justice who traveled across the land and helped others.

Being inspired by one of their epic tales, she once climbed the very top of a giant tree, but eventually lost footing and fell down, hurting one of her tiny legs. A young girl and her father was there and the girl had nursed her back to help, with the dad slightly messing up and being somewhat of a clutz. For a time, she lived with the girl and her family, always avoiding the dad because of his clumsy nature, even if the man was rather kind. However, the girl was still too young to even be a trainer, let alone take care of a Pokémon, so her mother and father decided to return Lily to the woods where they had found her, and if she was lucky, they would meet again. (At least that was what she thought they were saying with how she read their faces.)

… Lily paused somberly for a second right after saying that.

The dad was the one bringing her back and he brought his car with him to drop her off. This father was also a smoker, but he never did so in the forest or at home, usually outside his house or in his office. Lily did not know what a smoker was, but she always saw these 'white smoking sticks that smelled really bad' on the man's mouth from time to time.

When they got back into the forest, the man's car had engine trouble so he left his door open and walked out.

Lily then noticed something strange near a white box in the driver's seat: something right next to a box of those white sticks. Anto called it a lighter, but Lily said she didn't know what it was, but it looked really pretty.

Since the man left the door open, Lily 'borrowed' the lighter as she hoped out and started playing with it. She didn't notice the man behind her opening up his car and checking out some greasy liquid—Anto knew that was gasoline. The man was checking his oil levels.

"**Why do I have the feeling that you already know?**" The grass type smiled sadly towards her trainer with widened eyes.

Lily continued her story and she was actually playing with the lighter until it lit up. The fire, and her being a grass type, scared her and she threw it away without checking—yes, she wasn't aware where she threw it.

It didn't take a genius to realize where the lit fire went, and it didn't help that the father went towards the back of the car at that moment to get a bottle of new oil while he left the hood up.

The man did spot the light mid air, but his only his eyes reacted as he saw the lighter head towards the open oil lid.

The man ran, scooping up Lily and running far away as he could before the fire ignited and exploded the car while it was near a forest, setting it ablaze.

Lily didn't know what was happening, it was all just fine a minute ago, but then the man carrying her suddenly gasped and fell down.

It was now catching up with what Lily said. The Sword of Justice, people she once looked up to, had killed an innocent man they thought was evil.

But then Lily surprised Anto, saying that her story wasn't done.

Afterward, she had learned that the other Pokémon were cursing that 'evil' human for ruining their home. Lily tried to defend him, but no one listened to her. They said he had to be evil, because the 'great' Sword of Justice stopped him and they're 'never wrong'.

"**Never meet your heroes, Anto. They suck in real life.**" Lily then explained that was actually years ago. She once snuck back to the girl's house to find out that the girl and her mother were gone. An old Pidove living nearby explained that the two left towards another place and they really looked sad and heartbroken for some reason.

So for years, Lily had been living among other who cursed someone kind, when she was the one who had caused the flames.

"**You're the first one I told this to, you know? I never even told anyone else the truth after. I wanted them to stop insulting him, but… I was afraid… afraid that they would hate me—that I would be the one killed or scorned. So I thought, finding the Sword that killed my friend, I would tell her off, and maybe, maybe get some of this guilt off my chest.**" Lily sadly finished.

…

…

Anto sighed and fell down into the wet grass, ignoring how soaked his clothes were getting. At least it wasn't his blood this time and just water.

"_How am I supposed to brood after hearing all of that?_" Anto whined.

"**You're supposed to comfort me and make me feel better with some sappy speech.**" Lily rolled her eyes and fell into the grass to lie down as well.

"_I'm fourteen, I'm supposed to be like really angsty and selfish around this period in a human life and apparently I fail at even that!_"

Lily rolled her eyes as she looked up to the sky. "**Humans are so stupidly complicated.**"

"_At least my head won't wilt…_"

"**What was that?**"

"_Just that life sucks. It really sucks._" The mute answered quickly despite laying on the ground.

"**It does… doesn't it?**"

Anto laughed. "_Look on the bright side: you'll find a lot of people who agree with you on that front._"

Lily tilted her head towards her trainer. "**Aren't other people the reason why we're so angsty and brooding in the first place?**"

The boy's eyes widened at the thought. "_Ah, right. That completely slipped my mind._"

Lily glanced back to the beautiful blue sky as a cloud started flying over them. "**… So basically this entire conversation was pointless crap that just proves that life sucks universally?**"

"_Dear lord that sounds horribly depressing._" Anto replied in a somewhat lazy manner.

Lily giggled. "**So why do I actually feel better about myself despite the fact I just technically badmouthed some nice kid a while ago and brought out my frustrations out on him?**"

"_Don't know. You must be crazier than all the others in our party._"

"**And who's the one who brought us all together?**" She replied with a smirk towards him. "**But thanks, I do feel better now.**"

"_I didn't even do anything but just get my favorite clothes wet._" The boy looked to his favorite jacket. Maybe he could get Takezo to do his dry cleaning for him.

Still it was nice just talking and having someone to listen. Maybe that was why the world wasn't screwed over yet. There were still people out there who actually bothered to care and listen to others, and Lily just so happened to find a group full of them.

Strange how they were mixed out to find them among such circumstances huh?

"_I wonder how Takezo's doing?_"

"**Probably learning about sword techniques from legendary heroes; at least one of us is having a good time. I'm kind of wondering how Flow is doing. I haven't seen her in a while.**"

Anto sighed. "_Kinda makes you wonder what goes in the world when you're in the middle of your pity party._"

[Elsewhere…]

"There you are!"

Jamie yelped as she turned over to see someone hiding in the shadows. "Y-You!"

"Be quiet! Do you want your friends to hear you!? You're lucky I can even pull this off! Without anyone noticing!"

Jamie gulped as she saw the person walk out of the shadows. She thought she was alone and wanted to clear her head a bit, but how did she…

"I-I brought Anto to the tower like you said… B-But I didn't see anyone there!" Jamie stammered. "A-And w-what happened to him?!"

"Oh right, we never told you, did we? Well, for one, good job I guess for bringing the host to the tower." The girl said nonchalantly. "Some last minute things came up, Dimension Enterprise set up a lot more security measures than we expected, so there was a change of plans. But as for the Host, there's no reason to explain something complicated to you."

"H-He's my friend! Of course I worry! What did they do to him!? And what do you want with him!?" Jamie yelled out and stomped her foot.

The other girl froze and turned stiffly and quickly. "You insignificant—"

A Gardevoir stepped in and put a caring arm on the other girl's shoulder. "**Calm down, my lady. Be calm.**" Then the psychic and fairy type looked over to Jamie and raised her hand—

Before slamming it down hard in a throwing motion with a look of angry hysteria in her eyes. "**YOU WRETCHED SCUM! HOW DARE YOU TALK TO MY LADY LIKE THAT!?**"

She had used Psychic to throw and force Jamie into the ground with telekinetic force, pinning her down and feeling like a bus was crushing on top of her and crushing her.

"Gardevoir, stop. They will notice you." The dual type quickly turned to her mistress with a soft and gentle tone and quickly bowed for forgiveness. "Listen Jamie. We've already told you that The Host is the key to saving your little dying friend. You've already agreed to help us, and you already know who-what he really is. So why are you asking us again?"

"You just told me… that he was key to stopping an endless cycle." Jamie grunted.

The other girl sighed. "Dear lord, you fragments never listen well. Just keep watch for now and make sure he doesn't fall into Dimension Enterprise's hands. Let's go, Dea."

With that she and her Pokémon left in an instant, leaving Jamie all alone in the ground. She clenched the grass beneath her and started to tear up.

"Mom, Dad, Big bro… I'm so so sorry… I'm sorry, Anto."

"**Anto? Where are you going?**" A voice suddenly called out that sounded like it was coming towards Jamie.

Her heart stopped for a second as she recognized that voice. It was Lily, Anto's Lilligant, and she had just called out his name. That meant…!

"_I thought I heard—Jamie!? Whoa Hey! Are you alright!?_" The boy walked out of some trees and quickly ran to his down friend.

She quickly wiped her face and squashed all of her feelings. "I-I'm fine! I just fell down and wet my face a little…"

"_Here, let me help you up._"

Jamie slapped Anto's hand away while she was still on the ground. "I'm fine, Anto!" She screamed.

It took her a second to realize who she just did that too.

So wrought with guilt, Jamie couldn't say anything, she just stayed there, her body sitting on the wet grass.

Anto moved a hand at the back of his head and rubbed it. "_Guess, I'm not the only one who's feeling bad huh? I kind of forgot with what everything happening, but I'm really sorry, Jamie._"

The girl just blankly stared at the boy she lied and still was lying to. _He_ was the one apologizing to her?

"W-What? No, I'm sorry for hitting your hand away. I-I was just…" The words died in her mouth. How could she say it? That she was using him for her own goals? "I'm sorry."

The boy looked down to the grown, sighed and sat on the grass. "_I'm sorry I scared you when I woke up after being shot. I didn't even know I was immortal._"

She wasn't expecting that. They had never told her anything but to make sure a boy with a necklace was protected. They had kept so many things from her…

"No, I wasn't scared about that…"

"_Then I'm sorry for dragging you into this. You probably had other things to do before all of this?_"

Jamie stared incredulously at the boy in front of her, trying his best to make her feel good despite everything happening to him, and what was she doing to this person- her friend? At this point, she then started laughing. She laughed and she laughed… until she started to cry.

From confused to panicked, Anto, waved his hands frantically while Lily stood to the side rolling her eyes.

"_W-Whoa! I'm so—_" The mute became lost for words when Jamie suddenly tackled him and hugged him very tightly.

Lily's eyes were no longer rolling, but widening.

"I lost my family… I lost my dad, who won't be there ruffling my hair and telling me to keep my chin up whenever things get rough! I lost my mom, who won't be there every Saturday making my favorite seafood dish that tasted like the best in the world, telling me that I can do anything I want in the wolrd because she will always be there to support me…" She wailed and she sobbed as she hugged Anto harder, leaving the startled mute to only hug her back kindly at what she was pouring out.

She then raised her tear stained, light green eyes at him. "And I miss my brother, my best friend and someone who I looked up to and who—" She gasped as she buried her face into Anto's shoulder and continued sobbing, saying things like how she really missed them and that she was sorry for some reason.

Still taken back, but now trying his best to soothe her, Anto continued to hug Jamie and looked to Lily on what he should do.

"**Don't worry, Keldeo, Sword Of Justice is here to save—oh it's just you Anto.**" The water type jumped out, now in a completely different form he was from awhile ago.

Takezo's head popped out of the bush Keldeo jumped out of and then looked at Anto holding Jamie in his arms.

"**Anto, I respect you, but you seem to be threading down a path of one who plays with maiden hearts as if they were toys.**" In Takezo speak: he was worried Anto was now becoming a play boy.

"_This isn't what it looks like?_" Anto spoke out as Jamie quickly broke off the embrace and wiped her eyes.

"…" Takezo looked hard at how flushed Jamie was and now seeing her wipe tears. He looked towards Lily who shrugged.

"**Don't look at me. I'm just as confused as you are.**" The grass type spoke up.

"**Are you also a friend of Ash?**" Keldeo, slightly oblivious to the whole tone of the air. "**Oh hey! Are you crying? Are you alright?**"

"I-I'm better." Jamie spoke out as she rubbed her eyes. "I-I'm sorry, I just… had something I needed to get off my chest."

Anto didn't ask why she was crying though there was obviously something bothering her. Man, how can he brood and feel bad about himself when there are so many other people who are much worse off than him? That so wasn't fair.

"**Keldeo? Is that you?**" To everyone's surprise, Takezo and Keldeo weren't the only one attracted to Jamie's crying.

Out came a much more majestic and noble four legged Pokémon—Anto recognized the Pokémon as Cobalion, the presumed leader of the Swords of Justice and he was followed by two other members, Terrakion, and Virizion.

Anto, Takezo, and Lily all locked eyes with Virizion.

"**Ah, it has been a while, hasn't it? Little Sword Acolyte?**" Virizion spoke out to Takezo before looking to Anto. "**And you seem… different now, human who can speak to others.**"

"_Why does Takezo get the cool nickname?_" Anto quickly mentioned to himself before standing up and dusting himself off and helping Jamie up. It was a little intimidating, but these must be the other Swords of Justice—hey wait. What was Lily doing?

Lily was walking up to the Swords of Justice while the other two conversed.

"**So they are the strange pair you met some time ago, Virizion?**" Cobalion spoke out.

"**At first I didn't believe ya, but now? I can see it in the way he carries himself, the small one has got quite the presence!**" Terrakion gave an excited smile towards Takezo.

"**You should have seen it, Terrakion! Mr. Takezo here had some of the most skill full swordplay I've ever seen! It was so different from all of you taught me!**" Keldeo mentioned from the side.

"**Oh? That sounds… may I help you miss?**" The fighting and rock type paused as Lily stood right in front of all three of them.

Her eyes went over to Virizion. "**Ms.? By any chance do you recall a fire around 12 years ago in Pinwheel Forrest?**"

Everyone turned to the grass type Sword Of Justice. "**I must admit that there have been a lot of fires over the course of a hundred years, I do not know which one you could be referring to.**"

Lily clenched one of her fists hard, but she exhaled. "**The one with a single man with a shiny Petilil? Ring any bells?**" She folded her arms.

The legendary thought hard. "**That careless man? He destroyed the homes of hundreds of Pokémon for his mistake.**"

"**It wasn't him. The reason that fire started, the reason hundreds of Pokémon lost their homes that day… it was my fault.**" Lily exhaled before stepping forward. "**That 'careless' man you put, dove in to save my life from an exploding car that 'I' caused. You misunderstood him and killed him on the spot. I was so horrified at your hatred that I froze solid and couldn't say anything. But it doesn't end there, oh no. Did you even know that he had a family? He had a sweet little girl and a wife, and guess what? Now that little girl grew up without a father in her life, not even knowing that Pokémon at the time were blaming him for that fire.**"

"**Virizion?** The youngest Swords of Justice stared at the shocked grass type as everyone but Anto looked on with surprise.

"**I… I…**"

"**Let me finish,**" Lily quickly interrupted. "**I never forgave you for that, for hurting him, for hurting his family, but I now realize that it was my fault as well. If only I had taken responsibility for my actions, if only I wasn't so… curious at what his lighter was… I'm here to say to you that you killed my friend. I may be at fault for that; I understand your thoughts at the time; and I harbor no more ill will against you; but I want you to know that I will never forgive you for that.**" With that, the grass type walked back towards Anto.

Everyone remained silent.

Surprisingly, it was Cobalion who broke the silence.

"**Keldeo, despite the fact we do our best to keep the peace, there will be times were we do fail. The world is a vast place,**" The leader spoke before looking towards Anto. "**And failures are bound to lie in the future. Sometimes, there will be times where we simply weren't good enough. All we can ever do, is apologize, move on, and try to be better.**"

There was a noticeable frown on Keldeo's face as he looked at Lily. Who simply just folded her arms.

The Four swords started to leave slowly, but Cobalion stayed behind and looked towards Takezo.

"**If I may have a word? I must ask that you be careful, there is a chance that you may meet a Pokémon who thrives on battling sword trained Pokémon. He is an ancient being, who has scattered the blood of many good bladesmen before even my time…**" Cobalion shook his head, as if trying to forget a repressed memory. "**That is all… also I'm sure Virizion is truly repentant. **" He spoke before leaving.

…

…

"**I don't want to forgive her.**" Lily softly spoke out after a while. "**I know it's the right thing to do, but I just can't find myself doing it. … Does that make me a bad person?**" She looked up to Anto with wide pink eyes.

"_No, it just means we're just as flawed as everyone else. I guess we could take Cobalion's lesson to heart. All we can do is learn and move on…_" The boy shrugged his shoulders.

The boy and his Pokémon started to go back, leaving Jamie back behind. The girl slowly reached for her arm and clutched it hard. She stared sadly at the boy with a heavy future.

…

The duo of Anto and Jamie walked back, with Anto already recalling his Lilligant and Patrat back into their spheres.

As they came to camp, they were surprised to hear Benga singing along to the Pichu strumming his ukulele poorly while Ben had his own wooden guitar.

"Yo mute!" Wes greeted with a smile as he was seen eating some marshmallows. "We're roasting some s'mores and listening to Benga's poor attempt at singing. It's like dinner and a show."

"Like you can do better?" Summer taunted before grabbing the bag of marshmallows away from the Orre teen.

"Heck no, but you don't see me making a fool of myself up there." Wes countered.

Benga simply laughed. "Are you kidding me? I've never been out camping with other before, let alone be allowed to roast marshmallows without burning something to the ground!"

"Aaaannnndddd consider yourself banned from roasting yours." White said as she fried two of the nummy treats over the fire.

"What? Oh come on!" Benga shouted out but then quickly shrugged his shoulders. "Oh wait, Anto? Don't you know music?"

The mute seemed surprised. "You should totally play something! It might be actually better than these two."

"**Hey!**/Hey!" Ben and his Pichu screamed out together.

"Ben, you have to admit that Pichu only uses that to amp his attacks, he doesn't actually know how to play and neither do you. Honestly, why did you buy that?" Summer spoke out as Ben handed the thing to Benga.

"I thought me and Pichu could play a few tunes together."

~Ping!~

Everyone stopped as the turned to Anto, who was strumming the guitar almost by instinct and the more he set it up, the more the strings sounded much more vivid and echoing.

"Ha! An amensiac is better a guitar than you two combine!" Wes smirked.

Ben flushed and grunted. "What!? Hey! I don't see you playing!"

"Like I said, why make a fool of myself in public?"

Anto started playing a few tunes in quick tandem, they sounded like a really good song. The amnesiac himself didn't even know he knew how to play the guitar, but here he was. Just like his harmonica, this felt very familiar.

He stopped for a second and brought all of his Pokémon out.

"Oh good idea, let's all bring everyone out." White agreed as she took out all of her Pokémon as well, followed by everyone else.

To everyone's surprise, Summer also had one, and described that she had to get one for her Staraptor now that she had more than one partner. Flow had her own Poké Ball now too.

With everyone present, Anto started to play. Surprisngly, it was an upbeat song and Benga and Ferland started to dance—poorly mind you. It was so bad Lily actually stepped in and offered him how to dance.

She actually started giving lessons as Anto played and soon White and Summer, and some other Pokémon started to join in because it looked like fun, soon a alrage group of people were taught how to dance by their instructor Lily. Ben sat near Anto in asking question how to make the guitar work. While Wes offered a few already prepared smores to Jamie, who took them with a soft smile.

After explaining a few things to Ben about the tuning, the black haired mute realized something.

It was strange if you thought about it: in the grand scheme of things, you find out how insignificant, how powerless, and how unfair everything is in life as he learned a bit from earlier today.

But we all still are there. We all still move on.

So as Anto played the guitar and how everyone sang along the campfire like a group camping trip, he couldn't help but wonder as he saw Lily helping Benga, White, and Summer dance along with the tune of the music…

Despite everything that happened, here he was, still smiling, laughing, and being at peace.

So then? Was angst, despair, danger, doubts, and fears really worth a night of being silly fools of music and poorly made smores under a cold and windy night?

You would be surprised at what Anto's answer to that would be.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**A somewhat somber chapter again. Lily finally gets to say her piece of mind she's been holding out for years, but then it doesn't come out as well as she thinks. Still, they all learn that life isn't perfect, but they move on regaurdless. This one had some inspiration from Avatar: the Last Airbender. I'm describing the part where Katara finds her mother's killer, but doesn't kill him in vengeance. Even though, she doesn't forgive him for that.**


	41. Ep 41: Old Character, New Tricks!

Episode 41: The Destined Meeting.

"_The League is starting in two weeks!?_" Anto cried out as he saw the video while the group was traveling down a subway in Tubeline Bridge to Opelucid City.

"Well that's what it says here in this Tablet." Ben explained after bringing out the mobile device for everyone to spot. It was video of Mayor Drayden declaring that the Unova League for this year would be moved up ahead of schedule.

"**That is the first human I've seen without a mouth.**" Ben's Pichu, who had a small blue ukulele on his back, commented as he stared deeply into the tall man's face beard on the screen.

"Uncle Drayden is usually super serious. Things must be pretty bad if they're pushing up the date." Benga commented as he sat down.

"Missing Rangers, missing Gym leaders, things are not looking good." Summer mentioned.

Everyone remained silent as they let the news settle down. However, Benga was rather tired of all the sadness and woe.

"OK that's it! Anto! Listen up! We're going to start our training the moment this train stops!"

The mute blinked in surprise, making everyone in the train look towards the fiery teen.

"Our Next Stop: Opelucid City Subway Station." An electronic voice called out throughout the train.

Benga smirked.

* * *

"Benga, where are we going?" Wes asked as the fiery teen kept walking in a seemingly random direction across the humble town.

"You'll see, we're jjuuusssttt aaabbboouuttt… there!" Benga stopped at two statues of Dragonite Pokémon on both sides that were in front of a large and ancient looking house with a large open field behind it, it actually was a little out of the way of the City.

The red haired teen ran in between the two statues that were in front of building and then shouted, "YO!? Anybody home!?" he shouted excitedly.

To their surprise, two beautiful women walked down some stairs in surprise. Benga himself looked just as surprised as everyone else.

"Auntie Liza?! Auntie Clair!?" Benga pointed dramatically at the Liza, the woman wearing red with green hair, and Clair, the woman with blue hair dressed like a dragon master. "What are you two doing in Unova!?"

"Oh Benga!?" Liza exclaimed as she ran and the two held each other in an embrace. "I haven't seen you in years! My have you grown up! Are you still casuing your mother trouble?"

"What?! How could you say that!?" Benga let go off the hug with shock.

She gave him a questioning look. "Ben, you aren't denying it."

"… But it still hurts for you to say that…" Benga pouted and folded his hands as the older woman ruffled his hair.

"She is right though, you have grown quite a lot since we last saw you. But we were here on a favor from Lance since he was making his way here." The older lady, Clair, spoke out.

"Wait a second! Aren't you Clair from Blackthorn City in Johto?!" Summer pointed at the woman.

"Why yes; that's me." The blue haired woman smiled as she went towards the others. "I am Clair of the Blackthorn City Gym, a pleasure to meet all of you." She raised out her hand for Summer to shake with.

"And I'm Liza, Clair's best friend and the watcher of Charizard Valley." The green haired woman introduced herself with a wave.

"You've made a lot of new friends, haven't you Benga?" Clair commented as she turned back to the fiery teen. "So what brings you all the way here?"

Benga ran up to Anto and pushed him up a bit. "Anto here is going to the league, and challenge Uncle Drayden! But he needs one heck of a power boost before doing that, so I thought maybe training with the dragons could help him!"

"_Say what now?_" Said mute looked towards his wild friend with confusion.

Both of the women were surprised at that odd voice, but then Anto quickly explained to them that he was (technically) a psychic trainer with the ability to translate between Pokémon and human language and nothing else.

While impressed, Benga pushed back the idea that Anto needed to be stronger.

"Hmm, well first off it would be a good idea to measure how good he really is as a trainer. Oh! I think I have an idea, come out side. He should be there…" Liza spoke out as she led the group out.

Out on the field was a legion of powerful Dragon Pokémon all surrounding one area like they were watching something. Then a Dragonite was knocked down hard into the ground and fell from the sky. The group of new comers looked up and a powerful Charizard roared in victory.

"That is the strongest Charizard in Charizard valley, he also happens to be Ash Ketchum's Pokémon too!" Liza spoke out.

'I really do hear that name a lot. He must really travel everywhere.' Anto thought to himself as Liza called out the Charizard, making the giant flame dragon come closer towards them and breaking up the dogfight amongst the dragons, but some of the dragon types watching simply turned over towards Anto as they watched the winner fly over to them.

"Alright then, everyone with me, you all get something else." Clair spoke out as she corralled the others away from Liza and Anto.

"**Well that's interesting.**" The Charizard spoke out as he looked at Anto from head to toe.

"_What is?_" The boy nervously asked.

Before the dual type could respond, Liza asked him something. "Charizard, Anto here wants to be stronger, and I need your help to see how good he is."

A smirk appeared on the powerful fire starter. "**Alright then. I guess that wasn't just a coincidence.** **And for your previous question… you have the same eyes of my good friend.**"

The Charizard spread his wings. "**But show me what you've got.**" He flew hard as Liza stepped back, giving Anto battle space.

This Pokémon felt different from all the other ones he met so far. There was a strong presence to this Pokémon and even Anto could just tell that from just looking at him. Was this what Benga and Wes felt when they stared down the green Dragonite?

So there was only one Pokémon he thought he had that could battle him.

"_Tear the Battlefield asunder! Rise up, Ohko!_" Anto snatched his Great Ball before throwing it out.

"**Yo what up? You look really tough!**"

Charizard stared at the lack of arm Ohko had. A smirk appeared on his face as he inhaled—before unleashing a devastating flamethrower.

Ohko quickly summoned a Focus Blast and launched it on the ground in front of the large fire, causing a shockwave to blow away the attack.

The Charizard flew into the air and used a Dragon Pulse attack from high in the sky. Ohko jumped out of the way and the beam started following after him as he ran away. Ohko ran, picking up a rock as he did and then jumping and throwing the rock as hard as he could, smacking Charizard in the head and stopping the attack.

The one armed Sawk spun mid air and landed back on his feet in one fluid motion. Not only that, he was already gathering energy for his next Focus Blast, nearly a second after he stood upright, he was already reclining his arm and throwing the Focus Blast right for Charizard.

Clutching his head, Charizard still heard the sound of a fast attack coming right for him. He shielded himself with his wings as the Focus Blast made contact. However it didn't do much as the flying fire type spread out his wings with a roar.

"**Not bad! But you're going to have to do better than that!**" Charizard exclaimed before firing an Air Slash.

Anto quickly scanned the area, not much they could do to bring Charizard down.

Huh.

So what about brining Ohko up there?

But how could he do that?

Ohko fired an elemental fire Focus Blast at Charizard's Flamethrower. However, the combining clashes, caused a huge explosion that blew Ohko and Anto away back somewhat as they tumbled back.

"**I thought for sure fighting fire with more fire was a good idea**." Ohko got back up and scratched his head. "**Kay, then I'll just go for ice!**"

He swung his right arm in circles as he fixed his limb. He summoned a focus blast, but this time it had an icy-blue glow to it than the orange red. The Sawk gripped the sphere hard, making it burst with bright light before he threw it at Charizard.

The mighty dragon knew something was off and quickly shot an Air Slash to cut the attack in half. However, it didn't quite work the way it expected.

The two attacks collided, and the entire Air Slash was completely frozen solid! It quickly fell to the ground and shattered into a million tiny pieces that sparkled in the grass.

Anto looked over to Ohko in surprise. "_Ohko, how did you do that!?_"

"**Huh? Whatcha mean boss? I can focus on the hot fire, so all I gotta do is do the opposite of that and I get ice, right?**"

"_Ohko, I am not so sure that's how it works,_" Anto shook his head as he looked back at the broken Air Slash then back up towards Charizard. His amber eyes widened as well as a smile that appeared across his features. "_But screw it; you just gave me an idea how to bring him down!_"

"**Tight! What's the plan boss!?**" Ohko turned back up to his opponent with much fiercer and determined eyes.

Charizard recognized the look on both trainer and Pokémon. He couldn't help but laugh.

"**Was that how everyone else looked when he had a plan?**" He reminisced, but this meant that the battle was now going to get even more intense.

Ohko created another Focus Blast, but instead of attacking right away he was gathering more energy to it.

Quickly, Charizard started launching all of his long range attacks at the fighting type.

Ohko started to run, avoiding the beams, slashes and wide flames as he held on to the increasingly growing ice-Focus Blast.

It came to a point where it was twice the size of a disco ball before Ohko started running towards Charizard and threw the large sphere with all his might.

Quickly, Charizard dove and spun out of the way of the attack and quickly flew back to face his opponents. He smirked, what exactly did that do.

However, his smirk got quickly replaced with a confused look as Anto started running away while Ohko looked prepared in a running position towards him.

"_EVERYONE, YOU BETTER START RUNNING NOW!_" Anto cried out as everyone down below looked up with gasps before starting to run away quickly.

Charizad felt something off _coming right behind and above him_, so he looked up and gaped at what he saw.

The giant cloud he was under was **completely frozen solid**! And it was falling down fast on him!

'**They weren't aiming for me, but for the cloud behind me!?**' Charizard mentally shouted in surprise. Clouds were made out of water, and the purpose of that giant Focus Blast wasn't to hit him, but to freeze the cloud so it could start falling on him! That's why everyone started running!

'**Is this kid crazy!?**' Charizard thought as he quickly inhaled all the energy he could muster and launched a Dragon Pulse at the falling cloud.

The frozen cloud cracked and eventually split into many falling debris.

Then a Focus Blast attack hit Charizard in the back and exploded on contact. It didn't do that much damage, but Charizard had to move out of the way of the falling debris as large chunks of ice started falling towards the ground.

"**Yo!**"

After jinking to right of a falling debris, Charizard looked up and was surprised to see Ohko already preparing a Twin Dragons (Kick)! How did—

BLAM!

Ohko connected with the Axe kick on Charizard's head and the mighty dragon type fell down like a meteor in to the ground.

The one armed Sawk flipped and spun mid air before punching the ground to lessen the gravitational pull and land on his two feet.

As the dust settled, everyone started to come back towards the battle.

Liza looked at Anto. "How did your Sawk appear above Charizard? He was a good ten feet up in the air at least!"

"_I actually had some help from Charizard on that one. Do you remember the frozen ice cloud? I knew that Charizard would be powerful enough to destroy it since he couldn't risk water pouring all over himself by using a Flamethrower on it, so when the Dragon Pulse destroyed the cloud, that left a lot of falling debris… or __platforms__ for Ohko to start jumping on and climbing higher above Charizard._"

"You used falling ice debris as platforms to get your non flying Pokémon up there!?" Clair, who was watching from the side with everyone else went up to Anto with an exasperated look on her face. "That is either the craziest or most brilliant thing I have ever seen! And I've battled with both Ash and Gold!" The Blackthorn gym leader cried out.

Everyone turned to the battle field, as the clouds parted and Charizard roared with renewed flame.

Ohko was gasping for breath from all the quick movements, but he was smiling excitedly and ready to go fight again with Charizard.

"**That's enough. I've seen what I've wanted to see.**" The Kanto Fire starter declared as he folded his wings.

"**Wha? We ain't going to tussle?**" Ohko asked in surpise.

The mighty Pokémon laughed. "**As exciting it would be to battle you, I was asked by Liza to evaluate you and your trainer. I have my evaluation. We can continue our fight later.**"

Ohko titled his head, but stood back up from his fighting stance.

Liza and Anto were the first to come back as everyone, even the watching dragon Pokémon followed after them.

"**These two are good. They've already got a great bond and obviously know how to work together.**"

"**I punch things and he tells me what to punch!**" Ohko spoke out, making Anto blush and rub the back of his head.

"**There are just two things I don't see that could just use some work. You are a wonderful battle planner, but I think you actually lack that much power to begin with. You are strong, but trust me, you're going to need to be stronger in order to start winning the league. The second thing is drive, before we battled, you didn't seem so sure of yourself. In a battle you have heart and soul, but I'm guess you have some doubts outside of this?**"

Anto nodded in confirmation, wondering how he could have noticed that from their fight.

"**I don't know what you've got on your chest, but it's best to face it head on. As for your Pokémon, bring them out. I've got some ideas from a 'dear friend of mine' showed me when I was still traveling with him. They're bound to work for your Pokémon as well.**"

Anto sighed and took out the rest of his Pokémon. "_If only it was that easy…_"

[Meanwhile]

She was staring at the picture of her prey, but at the same time she was not looking directly at him. She was always paying attention to the other boy next to her prey as if…

She shook her head.

"Mam!" One of her man snapped her out of her daydreams and delusions. "I'm here for a report."

"Go on," She placed her new Battle AR on her face as it started to take in a lot of data.

"We've located the boy nearby Opelucid from our hacked cameras and facial recognition software. However, there's a problem."

The image of a large area with a Dragon Icon on a nearby statue appeared in a picture on her scouter.

"He's with the Dragon Clan…" She muttered and rested her cheek on her hand. All across the world, the Dragon Clan are a group of people who have lived with dragon Pokémon. Some branches are not as famous and well known as Lance and Clair, but are sometimes hidden and secret like the one she knew off in the Hoenn region. Regardless if they were all connected or not the fact remained that they were all very powerful.

"Send some scouts for long surveillance. I don't want to risk anyone noticing us and alerting our presence. Also, prepare as many anti Dragon Counter measures as possible. We'll need all of our big guns for this."

[Back with Anto]

Anto sighed as he sat into the chair he was sitting on. Liza was kind enough to pour some tea for him. "Have you tried tea before?" She asked after pouring him a cup.

The two were all alone back in the house. Benga roped everyone else to train with the dragons, Charizard, and himself about their Pokémon.

Honestly, Anto didn't recall anything about tea and spoke out his thoughts through his powers.

That little comment made Liza wonder before Anto tried a sip before he recoiled and put the very, very bitter tea down.

"I guess that one was a little too strong for you. So what was that comment you made about the tea? You said that you didn't know if you did try it before?"

The mute paused for a second before deciding to tell Liza everything. He saw no reason to hide and talking about it felt better even though he could do nothing about the situation.

The tale was… surreal to say the least, but Anto tried his best to sound as honest as possible, but it still didn't stop Liza's (and eventually Clair's) eyes from widening and jaws from dropping.

"You're… immortal?" Clair finally asked.

"_I can even pull out a knife right now and stab myself. Though the thing is that soon after I will heal from it, and Summer told me not to do that again because it was disturbing._"

Everyone fell silent at how seriously calm Anto spoke that.

The mute then smiled. "_It's definitely not the best party trick to show to others._"

"I'm so sorry though. It must be hard on you that you want to go back to your family, but you don't even know if they'll accept you." Liza spoke out with great empathy.

"_Do you want to know something? Even though I know it's them, and there's literally physical proof that they are my family, there's this odd and tiny voice I hear every time I think about them saying… __**they are not your family**__._"

"What?" Liza and Clair asked with surprise.

The amnesiac explained that he secretly had a feeling that his family isn't really his family even though it matches so perfectly. He didn't know why, but it felt like a primal, lingering instinct telling him something was wrong about this and it was the immortal part.

"I have no idea what you must be going through." Clair admitted.

The mute shrugged. "_Actually…_" He looked out the window and saw everyone else listening to Benga.

"_I'm having a lot of fun._"

* * *

"This isn't fun." Wes complained as they all watched their Pokémon get tired easily at the training regimen Benga, Ferland, and Charizard were implementing. To be honest, only Takezo, Ohko, Delta Wartorle, and Sentinel was actually seeming to keep up with this type of training and that was basically just battles focusing on their specialization.

Charizard was still battling Ohko, Ferland was trying to let Sentinel embrace his dragonic side; while Takezo was playing 'tag' with Delta Wartortle. And by tag, Wartortle kept vanishing into the shadows and popping up to attack Takezo while the samurai stayed in the center and either dodged or blocked the attacks.

Everyone else was tripping over each other and sometimes smashing into each other. Well, except Jamie's Pokémon and Wes' two Eons.

"Are you doing alright Flow?" Summer asked her Delta Pokémon.

"**I'm fine, but Kryx keeps staring at me.**" The two glanced to the Delta Ivysaur's left to see Kryx floating a little too close at her and staring at her like a television screen."**And the fact she doesn't have eyelids bothers me more…**" She whispered.

"**Ppppprrrooooobbbbeeee….**" Kryx muttered as she stared at The Delta Pokémon from the Torren Region with her giant eyes in her big head.

Flow and Summer took a step back. Kryx floated closer to them.

"Well that reminds me of how I met you, or is it you guys now? Have you solved that whole two are one thing yet?" Wes looked over to his Zwelious.

The two heads looked back and tilted their heads… in the opposite direction from each other.

"**Two are…**"  
"**One?**"  
"**Whoa!**" The two heads spoke at the same time. "**Me never thought of that!**"

Wes petted the head closest to him. "Glad to help." For some reason the other head looked to be happy from the petting.

"**How come I don't feel anything?**" The head Wes was petting asked.

Wanting to test something out, Wes petted the other head which then the first head felt it.

"Huh, looks like Anto isn't the only one with weird Pokémon." Wes noted before looking to Elektross. "So anything you'd like to share about yourself?"

"**Well… I can float?**" The electric type offered. "**I guess I'm really not that special huh?**"

"Hey, we could use more cool headed people. Don't sweat it." Wes complimented.

"That reminds me, Wes, have you seen anything weird while I was gone?" Summer asked as she walked over to Wes. She was also unaware of Flow softly whispering not to leave her alone with Kryx.

Wes gave her a look. "Well for one, I met Anto so…"

"You know what I mean." Summer folded her arms.

"Well be more specific then." Wes countered.

"Hey! Don't be so rude to Summer!" Ben, hearing the conversation, walked up and spoke up.

Wes just looked at him strangely before looking back to Summer. "Huh, I honestly thought you would complain a bit more about me, so why does he not know?"

"If you must know, I think there is some good deep down in you, so I've been telling everyone you are not that bad." Summer responded.

"Well you're wrong on that front, Nerd. I'm not a good person." Wes spoke out before walking away from the group his Zwelious followed after him while the other Pokémon were still being trained by Benga and Charizard.

"Geez what's his problem?" Ben asked.

Summer sighed. "It's complicated." Then she scratched the back of her head.

Jamie walked to them and spoke up. "Uh hey, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I overheard about Wes?"

"Why is he so hard to deal with?" The male ranger asked.

"… I don't know myself, but I think I can make a few guesses. It might be about his dad." Jamie spoke out.

Summer quickly turned to Jamie. "Wait, he told you about his dad?"

"What? No!" Jamie quickly said before being surprised and catching what Summer spoke out. "But what did you mean by his dad?"

"That's something Wes should be the one telling you about. It was a long time ago when he told me." The brown haired Pokémon ranger explained.

* * *

"Mam, we are directly above the Dragon Clan estate. It appears we haven't been detected." A hired hand spoke out as he saluted to the silver haired bounty hunter. "Also, we've detected two Pokémon Rangers and a gymleader from Johto to be here as well."

She paused at that. All these dragon Pokémon and the fact there were people here to protect them? Still there wasn't much of a window if their target was heading towards the league like their worker informed them, and by then it would be very hard to capture him at all afterward.

If it wasn't for her new gift, she probably would have cut her losses and hoped for a better time to show itself. But if she played her cards right, this would be the mother lode: a group of powerful dragon Pokémon from the Dragon clan? She would be set for life with just selling half of those off.

"Get all your fairy and ice types ready! We hit them hard and fast that they won't know what hit them! Show no mercy!" She yelled out to all of them.

Meanwhile back below, Flow was still backing away from Kryx who was still floating less than paw distance away from the Delta.

"**Umm could you uhh please not umm stare at me like that? It's very unnerving.**"

"**I'm not staring. I'm dissecting you with my mind.**" Kryx leaned in forward.

"**Please don't."**

It was then the two psychics felt something in the air. Kryx had a light beeping in her arm before she teleported a 3DS into her limbs and opened it up.

"**What was that?**"

Kryx quickly floated up and shouted out mentally for everyone. "**GUYS THERE'S A CLOAKED SHIP DIRECTLY ABOVE US!**"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked above where a out of the sky, over a dozen giant, metal rods shot out and surrounded the entire area and created a large dome around the estate.

Just near the inside of these pillars, Wes and Zwellious looked up and saw a large ship de-cloak mid air.

"Never a dull moment huh?" Wes muttered as he ran back towards the center of the dome: the back yard where all the Pokémon were.

Anto, Liza, and Claire ran out of the house and looked around the surrounded area.

"No! That's can't be! What's she doing in Unova!?" Claire screamed out as she looked up.

The large hangar of the plane opened up—with a large amount of Pokémon charging their attacks!

"Everyone down!" Claire barked as some of the Pokémon there erected barriers surrounding some of them, but not all nearby Pokémon.

The combined attacks hailed down from above and exploded on the make shift forcefield.

Wes and his Zwelious, while making their way, saw the attack land and then were both blown away from the shock wave of the blast back towards the edge of the force field.

Hunter J and her Mercenaries descended from the sky with legions of parachutes and fairy and ice Pokémon. Some of the other Dragon Pokémon started waking up from the force field that (Kryx, Lily, Super Nut, Espeon, Umbreon, and Flow) put up before trying to attack their assaulters.

Hunter Jay pointed her Gauntlet at a Haxorus and Flygon heading right towards them and fired two shots that turned both dragons into golden statues. A Dragonite charged in, but then it got stomped in the head and crushed into the gorund by Hunter Jay's Salamance that was now wearing a gorgeous looking jeweled necklace.

.

.

.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. There really had to be some kind of lesson Anto was just missing if he was put into one life threatening adventure after the other. He may have just figured out he was immortal, but seriously he did not want to test how durable he actually was.

After the blast hit, the mute quickly looked to see if everyone was alright. Their enemy, Hunter J—A name that instantly popped into his head as another split second of quick information filled into his mind that all rounded into one word.

Dangerous.

"_First_ _Secret Agents now high tech bounty hunters. What next? Demons?_" Anto thought to himself as he helped everyone get back up.

Hunter J was using her Visor to pick up her target. Even as a fight started breaking out, the signal stood out in this new dog fight.

She was warned that her target was special, but none the less, a target was a target.

So why was she scanning around for something that wasn't her target?

"Everyone it's Hunter J!" Clair spoke out as she threw a Poké Ball for her Dragonair. Quickly, the blue snake dragon launched a powerful blast all the way up to the ship, but a force field stopped the attack and was revealed to be protecting the ship.

"Clair! The field is blocking all calls! We're trapped!" Liza screamed out with a phone that wasn't working in her hands.

"And that ship must be keeping the field up…" The blue haired woman gripped her fist as she looked up.

A painful sound of hurt dragons made everyone look and see Hunter J quickly making their way towards them. She was leading her team towards the group by freezing any Pokémon willing to attack her while her underlings were using ice and fairy types to dispatch any nearby dragon types.

"Oh no you don't! Sylveon Dazzling Gleam!" Jamie declared as her eeveelution unleashed a powerful blast of light towards J's Salamance.

The hunter simply smirked and pressed on a beautiful brooch she wore on her jacket.

A giant orb surrounded the dragon Pokémon as the attack made contact and blocked most of the attack with amazing energy. As the cocoon cracked Mega Salamance appeared with a ferocious roar.

Hunter J quickly activated a new function on her visor that was adapted from the Battle Augmented Realizer, or Battle AR, she received. It linked with her Mega Salamance and she started seeing data flow as the new function of the machine scanned Pokémon by Pokémon.

More of Hunter J's men and Pokémon pushed forward, but Charizard ascended to the sky and unleashed a heavy flame thrower to ward off the fairy and ice type Pokémon away. However, Charizard was body checked by Mega Salamance in the sky and slammed into the ground before the mega dragon flew back up like a jet.

Charizard got up and quickly fired a dragon pulse, only for the Mega to quickly dodge out of the way.

"**Yo, Tak!**" Ohko cried out as he placed his only arm out to Takezo while his body was facing the direction towards Charizard and Mega Salamance.

The samurai nodded before jumping into the Sawk's hand and being thrown at high speeds. The Patrat's eyes glowed bright blue to indicate it was using Detect before hitting the Mega Salamance right in the face with a stab from his wooden sword.

The two Pokémon fell mid-air, but Takezo screamed to Charizard, "**Now! While he is incapacitated!**"

Charizard didn't waste a second and quickly readied a Dragon Pulse.

It wasn't fast enough as Hunter J encased Charizard in solid gold from a blast from her gauntlet, freezing the mighty starter mid attack.

Takezo and Ohko widened with surprise while Hunter J aimed right for Takezo and fired again.

Kryx then appeared right behind the falling normal type and disappeared in an instant.

"No Charizard!" Liza and a female Charizard with a bow cried out with grief as the powerful Pokémon was already captured.

"Liza, look out!" Clair spoke out but then she was surrounded by more of Hunter J's group.

The others tried to fight back, but they were all over whelmed by the numbers surrounding them, and with the other dragon Pokémon froze solid, there seemed to be no way out—

"Ahh! My Slurpuff!"

"What the heck!? My Glaile!?"

"Hey what happened to my Dewgong!?"

"Klefiki, where did you go!?"

Suddenly everyone heard other members of Hunter J's team scream out with horror as their Pokémon suddenly disappeared from their sides.

One mercenary was standing right next to his Weavile, when a bright light—almost shaped like a hand—snagged the Weavile away into thin air.

"No! Weavile!" The merc cried out before following the direction of there the 'hand' was grabbing from. Then he was quickly blasted by a Dark Pulse attack.

Hunter J followed the attacked man towards this new… person…

Wes strode in with his visor on, preparing another Snag (Ultra) Ball in his Snag Machine in his hand with Zwelious shortly after him.

"Wes!" Summer cried out as she kept a merc in a strangle hold.

"How is he doing that!?" Ben asked as he saw Wes stealing away another fairy type Pokémon by throwing a ball that literally grabbed away the Pokémon even as the man tried to recall back the Togetic.

Hunter J strode forward, making the mercenaries back off as Wes also walked closer to Hunter J.

Everyone froze—and those that were turned into statues remained statues—as they saw the two silver haired people stare down each other behind their visors as both of their… coats… trailed behind them…

Odd when Wes and Hunter J were put in the same exact place as each other, they looked strangely similar to each other.

What are the odds of that?

Wes sighed and removed his visor. He slowly stared at Hunter J, who removed her visor and also stared back at him.

"So… you're Hunter J." Wes said as if it wasn't a fact, but rather a confirmation.

"_Wes? Do you know her?_" Anto asked as he was frozen mid way on stomping on a unconscious mercenary Sentinel and Lily knocked out cold.

Wes turned nonchalantly at the mute then shrugged. "Kind of hard not to hear about the woman who gave birth to me."

…

…

…

"_**SHE'S YOUR MOTHER!?**_"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**OOH! Cliff Hanger! (No spoilers in reviews please! If you want to mention something just PM me pls.)**

**You have NO idea how long I have been playing with this idea and now that it's finally out, I'm all giddy like a young child in Christmas morning!**

**I made Hunter J Wes' mom in this fic. I mean have you even SEEN those two together if you imagine them in the same room!? They look soooo much alike! Heck they even have similar themes! How could they not be related!? (I'd like to imagine those who were designing Hunter J took a lot of inspiration either directly or indirectly from Wes.)**

**Hopefully this teases you all to read the next chapter! **

**See you all soon! I can't wait to show you guys what I have planned for this battle between Snagger and Hunter! Mother VS Son! It won't be just attacks but fists and kicks will fly as well!**


	42. Ep 42: Snagger Wes VS Hunter J!

[A long time ago]

"No! Don't throw out your elbow, turn with your body and use the momentum from that turn!" Gonzap yelled out as a young ten year old Wes threw another punch after another.

"This is annoying." The young boy muttered as two Eevees at the corner of the room played with each other.

"Good. If you're complaining about it then that means you're actually doing it." The towering muscleman with a just as titanic mustache smiled as he stood up from leaning on the gym wall and walked towards the padded area of the small workout gym room in their new Base in Echo Canyon.

"Now go out and do ten laps around the base." Gonzap folded his arms.

"What!? Out there!? But it's burning out there and I'm not wearing any shoes!" The tan boy cried out.

Gonzap leaned in with a smug grin. "Either go out there for an hour or two, or I kick you back out for good and just keep all your stuff."

"That's Tauros Crap!"

"You've got a tongue, but I wanna see you use your feet!" Gonzap stood back up and pointed. "Time's a wasting, kid! Either it's too hot out today, or the cold air will freeze you to death at night!"

"I hate you!" The boy cried as he was led out.

"Good! Something's gotta keep you alive!" Gonzap howled with laughter as he watched Wes run laps under the scorching sun.

Ten laps later, the boy collapsed in front of the HQ in utter exhaustion and sweat.

Gonzap towered over his fallen and gasping body. "Ha, so you didn't die of heat stroke then?" He smiled as he lifted the kid up and slung him over his burly shoulders before bringing him back to his room.

The large man couldn't help but feel a little pride in the stubborn oaf. "Dang kid, you're harder to kill than I thought. ... Good! You'll be better than any of us when I'm through with you."

* * *

[Present time]

"_**SHE'S YOUR MOTHER!?**_"

"_**YOU HAVE A SON!?**_"

Needless to say everyone was shocked at that revelation as both sides screamed out loud towards their respective teammate.

Wes rubbed his ears. "Ow."

"Your Mother is Hunter J!?" Ben screamed out. "H-How is that even possible!?"

Wes sighed and looked over back to the woman who was still pointing her gauntlet at him. Her eyes were still staring right at Wes.

It seemed as if now was not the right time to ask for questions.

…

"You're more rugged than I thought you'd look." Hunter J spoke out at last. She didn't say that like a conversation, more like she was stating a fact.

"And you look younger than someone supposedly in their late 40's." Wes responded back.

Another silent pause went by as both sides still were too shocked at the fact these two were related and were continually comparing the two side by side.

"Let me guess," Wes finally spoke out again. "You're here for Anto, right?" He pointed a thumb out to the boy which made everyone look at him.

Hunter J said nothing, but she did glance at the boy then glance back at Wes without moving her gauntlet.

It seemed like that was all Wes need to know as he placed a hand on his visor. "You know… he told me to never blame you."

Hunter J's face soured for one moment and quickly fired her gauntlet. Wes side stepped and charged his Snag Machine as he dodged.

Both of them placed on their visors and charged right for each other.

Hunter J fired two shots right at the teen, but the Orreain already threw two Ultra Balls up towards them to get hit by the beams and turn them solid gold. The combined new weight forced the two spheres to drop but not before Wes kicked one of them right towards Hunter J while grabbing the other one before running back towards her.

Hunter J jinked the kicked sphere as it zoomed past her and hit one of her grunts on the forehead and knocked him to his feet, but she didn't care at all as she threw two of her Poké Balls to bring out an Ariados and a Drapion to follow after her. Wes' Pokémon all came up running after him.

Hunter J fired again, but this time Espeon summoned a Reflect barrier that turned gold before Delta Wartortle came in and kicked it right for Hunter J. Quickly, Hunter J's Drapion imbued its claws with Night Slash and shattered the incoming solid barrier like glass, but then he was tackled by Umbreon away from the two closing in teams with Espeon following after his brother.

Ariados quickly shot out a Sticky Web to entrap all of them, but Wes' Elektross dove in with a Wild Charge to bust through the web and ram the bug poison type. However, the spider was far more nimble and side stepped out of the way before attacking the escaping electric Pokémon.

A shadow quickly passed overhead of Wes and his Zwelious and Delta Wartortle as Mega Slamance flew back in with wind variant version of Hyper Voice. Acting quickly, Delta Wartorlte jumped on the back of Zwelious and made him sink into the Shadows while Wes jumped out of the way of the attack. Quickly, Delta Wartortle and Zwelious popped back up and fired at the fast moving Mega Salamance, gaining his attention.

Hunter J finally came close and tried to punch the teen, but Wes titled his head and grabbed the arm before judo throwing the older woman into the air. The Hunter grunted but flipped mid air back to her feet before firing her gauntlet again at the Snagger. Wes acted quickly and threw the golden ball he had towards the shot, making it bounce off and hit one of her men on accident before the two charged in again.

The Hunter threw a variety of kicks and punches with graceful form that Wes seemed to be dodging with relative ease until the two both stepped back and attempted to punch each other—only for both their other hands to come up and catch the opposing fist.

Then the two looked over to their respective teams.

"_**What are you all gawking for!? Help me!**_" They both yelled at the same time before jumping away from each other.

"_Dear Arceus! The strangeness never stops does it?_" Anto spoke up as he motioned his Pokémon to follow him and attack some still stupefied mercenaries. "_I'm heading towards the ship, guys, cover me!_"

"Hey, the target is heading towards the ship, stop him!" One of the mercenaries cried out before Summer kicked him in the stomach.

"Wes, are you alright?!" The female ranger yelled as she ducked under a Mercenary and judo slammed him over her shoulder.

"This one is mine!" Wes called as he cart wheeled away from Hunter J. "Just protect the unluckiest person in the world!"

Hunter J quickly jumped as Mega Salamance picked her up and went towards her target.

However, suddenly the mega Pokémon abruptly stopped and Hunter J found herself frozen.

Down below, Espeon was using psychic to hold the two in place.

"Aww come on," Wes taunted from below. "I was starting to enjoy our mother-son bonding."

"Oh Arceus, you have his sarcasm." She gasped and at the back of her visor she was rolling her eyes.

Wes clenched his fist. "How could I not get it!?" Wes motioned down, prompting Espeon to throw down the two towards the floor, but Drapion came in and used Night Slash on the psychic. Thankfully, Umbreon jumped in and took the blow. However, it still knocked him and his brother out of the way and broke of the psychic hold, allowing Hunter J and her Mega Salamance to focus back on him.

"I have no time for this." The silver haired woman snarled.

"Too bad, we both know this was a long time coming." Wes stood back up slowly from avoiding the Drapion. Behind his lens, he was giving a solemn stare towards the woman wearing her visor.

Hunter J did not respond to that except with a silent sigh.

She pressed something on the side of her Visor and a screen appeared on her sign that asked, "Would you like to Activate Synergy Burst?"

She clicked yes.

At that moment, all three of her Pokémon got wrapped in rainbow aura.

Wes recognized that from when Sied activated his Battle AR.

The Snagger cursed, "Sunnuva—"

The Synergy Burst activated on all three of her Pokémon, making a huge power wave that blew the winds around Wes and his Pokémon like gales.

"Why does everyone but us have an Arceus-freaking power up!?" Wes complained as the winds died down.

* * *

"_Alright, ship with forcefield. How do we bring it down?_" Anto bet other trainers didn't have to deal with this. He also bet that they wouldn't say such a phrase as if it was common place in their everyday life.

The mute ducked as Ohko and Takezo jumped over him and attacked some Ice and Fairy Types moving in to capture him. The boy walked forward a bit before looking towards Kryx and asked her if there was a way to bring it down.

"**Gimme a sec!**" The excited Elgyem called out as she played with her DS.

Anto looked back up and noticed that at the bottom of the ship there were hatches opening up with objects coming out…

And they seemed to be pointing towards him.

"_Oh cannons. OHCRACPCANNONS!_" Anto cried out as he grabbed Kryx and jumped out of the way of the cannon blasting a small radius of where he and his Psychic type were standing. What was impressive was that the forcefield actually opened up and let the artillery pass through before closing right after it left.

More cannon fire shot out and Super Nut quickly grabbed the two of them and launched into the sky before landing on a Stealth Rock on the air.

"_Are they trying to kill me—oh,_" Anto realized that they probably couldn't kill him… which meant that they were allowed lethal force to catch him… which then made him realize how bad this really was and made his eyes widen. "_Oh no…_"

"**OK, I think I got it!**" Kryx spoke out before putting the DS away in her hammer space. "**We just gotta hit it really, really hard!**"

"**Phenomenal!**" "_Wait What?_" Super Nut declared while Anto gawked in shock.

"_I thought you scanned it!?_" The boy spoke out before Kryx teleported them on the other side of ship as cannons missed them where they were previously.

"**Well I was, but my scanner broke when you tackled me down and I can't teleport us through there, so I decided to take a page from Ohko and just hit it until your problems are solved!**" Kryx gave an elated smile.

Anto's left eye twitched while Super Nut was all for the plan and quickly grabbed the two of them to dive as the cannons blasted the floating rock they were previously on.

Mid fall, Super Nut shouted out to Kryx. "**Science Alien, execute Super Hero formation: Team Rocket!**"

"**Roger, Super Nut!**" She said as she teleported away with Super Nut grabbing Anto and putting him down before catapulting away from him.

"_Huh what? Guys?_" Anto looked around before he noticed the ship pointing their cannons towards him. "_Guys!?_"

The cannons fired as Anto was grabbed by someone else and looked up to see a Staraptor.

Summer waved at him from above with her goggles on. "Hey Anto! I never introduced you, but this is Staraptor, my first partner!"

"**Sup my earthly bbrrrooo.**" Why did a flying bird have a surfer's accent? "**The filth of man's soul always tries to pluck those innocent flowers maaannnnn.**"

Anto looked back up to Summer with a raised brow. "Right, umm he said that he's sad that there are people doing this." The girl translated. She had to admit it took her a while to get through her partner's accent when Flow first translated him. She then looked over towards the ship. "Any ideas how to get that down? I figured you would have thought of something with how the field opens up every time it shoots, but I've got nothing."

"_I think Super Nut has that covered…_" Anto looked down as he and the others saw Super Nut stretching himself as far as he could with two floating boulders with Kryx psychically holding the boulders while Sentinel kept pulling Super Nut back.

"Are they doing a slingsh—" A boom caught Summer's attention as she quickly looked back and made Staraptor avoid the shell aimed at them that flew off and exploded on the forcefield.

Down below, Ohko, Sentinel, and Kryx jumped in front of the steel and grass type before Super Nut let loose.

"**TRADE MARK CATCHPHRASE!**" Super Nut let go and the four Pokémon sped through the gap before it closed and slammed into the right end of the ship.

"… Are they… alive?" Summer asked incredulously as she saw the ship starting to smoke.

The plane started exploding on that right side where attacks started shooting out and smoke was starting to fill their forcefield.

"_I'm starting to wonder who really are the immortals in our group?_" Anto asked as he saw the ship starting to smoke more.

* * *

One could imagine spending time with their mother to be a sweet thing.

Usually that person would be right, but if you are Wes from Orre, you find out that quality time with your mother is the same as preventing her from kidnapping your best friend by fighting her in a brutal one on one.

Wes will never stop saying that life in Orre was _so_ much simpler.

Ariados, now surrounded by a rainbow aura, launched a web string that quickly tangled up Wes' Elecktross. What was surprising was that the silk thread was so much stronger than before and the electric type could not break free of his restraints.

Quickly seeing this, Espeon helped out his ally by blasting a psychic on the bug type that was about to use Poison Fang on him. Drapion came rushing toward the distracted psychic type, determined to get it good. Umbreon jumped in between them and summoned a protect barrier for the two of them.

To the dark type and the psychic type's surprise, Drapion's attack was clashing with the forcefield, and it was even starting to break.

The two Pokémon quickly backed off when Drapion finally smashed through the protecting field.

"**Bro, use our combined forcefield!**" Umbreon shouted as the two eeveelutions quickly summoned their version of Light Screen and Reflect, combining it with Protect as the Drapion came at them again with his new found strength.

This time, their increased forcefield was holding.

"**Any ideas? I don't think we can hold this all day**." The dark type sweat drop as Drapion increased the ferocity of his attack.

"**Sadly that was Wes' department.**" His psychic brother answered grimly.

Elecktross saw the two brothers pinned down and quickly looked at Aradios quickly getting back up. A tricky idea formed in his head and quickly he floated a few steps to his right and shouted.

"**Come and get me you poor excuse for a Galvantula!**" The electric type taunted.

That ticked the poison and bug type off and quickly he fired another web shot—that was what Elecktross was waiting for! He admitted that he wasn't like any of the others, but he has been adventuring with Super Nut for quite some time and he's had his fair share of close calls.

All Elecktross did was swerve his entire body to drop into the ground, stopping his magnetic force propelling him up, and let the enhanced web fly… right into the back of Drapion and slamming him face first into the brother's force field.

The two eeveelutions did not waste a second as they saw Drapion sticking to their forcefield. "**Now!**"

The two ran, turning the bubble to turn into a wall that they both pushed with the still trapped Drapion almost able to move.

"**I can't use my powers on you,**" Espeon's body glowed brightly with his eyes shining bright blue. "**But the Web on you is a different story!**" He used the psychic power to strengthen the tearing web and quickly brought it back together. Then he lifted it up, along with the Dark type into the air before slamming him down like a hammer on top of the Ariados.

Again.

And Again.

And Again.

Espeon gasped for breath as he lifted the Drapion as high as he could before slamming him down with amazing speed on the other poison type.

As he crashed into the ground, Espeon fell to his knees, tired from exerting that much energy.

"**Did you get them?**" Elektross asked as he went towards the two brothers.

Three shots came out of the dust cloud, revealing themselves to be webbing that entrapped all three of them.

Drapion and Ariados walked out of the crater Espeon created still enveloped in Rainbow Aura and looking ticked off even though they were damaged.

Umbreon looked towards his tired brother and the struggling electric type before looking at the two Poison types madly charging their way towards them. "**Oh this is going to suck.**"

Suddenly, two Ultra Balls with a golden glow went flying towards the two poison types. They opened up and two bright hand shaped lights appeared—

Before it suddenly died down and two gold frozen Ultra Balls fell harmlessly to the ground. Wes acted quickly and recalled all three of his Pokémon, taking them away from the web and throwing them all back out, ready to face his mom and her poison types.

"**Thanks for the save!**" The electric eel cried out as he and the others prepared themselves in front of their opponents.

"Don't thank me yet, apparently my mother can kick my ass." Wes rubbed a sore spot on his cheek that wasn't originally there. He was careless and was kicked by his mother with a reverse round house. It stung like all heck.

"Stand out of my way." Hunter J commanded, throwing her hand out. "Nothing will stop me from completing my mission."

Wes sighed at that. "I meant what I said you know."

"Shut up."

That didn't deter the teen as he clenched his fist and felt his voice come out. "Pops doesn't hate you for—"

"Shut it! You don't understand! Neither of you ever understood!" Hunter J snarled and threw out her arm. "The world is a cruel and horrible place! The only thing you should ever rely on is yourself! I tried to accept you, but Kay…" She froze as the word escaped her mouth.

"Pops wanted to live a normal life."

"Normal lives are lies." Hunter J angrily spat. "Those people are nothing but ignorant fools who will have all they have ripped away from them without a second though. And people who defend those types of ideals are idiots. Your father was the biggest idiot of all." There was something in her words, something of an old scar a very, very long time ago. Pain was welling up in her chest as she recalled the fire…, the pain…

The betrayal.

"Oh I agree with you there, he was an idiot." Wes spoke out as he removed his visor and closed his eyes. He then opened them up with a solemn and calm face. "He always regretted not trying harder to take you with us."

"Shut up!" Hunter J yelled before pointing to the sky, revealing Mega Salamance flying his way towards them. "Mega Slamance, Hyper Beam!"

The boy from Orre widened his eyes at the Aerilate boosted Hyper Beam about to be fired in his direction. "Oh sh—"

A shadow appeared in front of Wes, and out jumped Delta Wartortle and Zewlious, both unleashing their most powerful Fusion moves at the insanely boosted Hyper Beam. Quickly, seeing the two, Espeon, Umbreon, and Elektross did the same with their Fusion Moves as well towards the attack.

The five attacks collided with the Hyper Beam, causing a massive explosion that spread through the entire estate.

[Back inside the Ship]

Super Nut, Ohko, and Sentinel were beating up bad guys and their Pokémon in the ship as Kryx was fiddling with her broken device.

Super Nut pinned down a Heatmor into the floor hard before looking to the floating Elgyem. "**Science Alien! Where must we go to stop this vile contraption of evil?!**"

Kryx finally booted up the 3DS shaped scanner. "**Ah there we go!**" She flicked a limb and slammed incoming Mercenaries into the wall with her Psychic powers while still holding up and looking at the scanner.

"**Wow the main engine is… right behind this door!**" She pointed to one of her limbs under a large door that was directly behind her that said, "Engine Room: warning! Be cautious and don't fire off Pokémon attacks in here!"

They were right in front of it this whole time?

"**Ohhh! So that does explain why there are so many of these guys here…**" Sentinel spoke out as he Specter Stepped, or did his Fusion move of Phantom Force and Shadow Sneak, and appeared right in front of the door with his claws set ablaze with dragonic energy. "**Alright, stand back!**"

He stabbed the claws at the opening of the doors before forcing them open and pushing the doors to the side with his monstrous strength. The Engine room was larger than they all expected, and in the middle was this huge looking furnace that seemed to be powering the whole ship.

As soon as he opened the door, a variety of attacks fired at the Delta Charmeleon. That was when Super Nut intercepted and used Protect to stop the attacks from hurting his super hero partners.

Out of the smoke, Ohko came jumping out and threw a large ice based Focus Blast into the ground, freezing the floor and the ice which also froze the legs off the Pokémon and people to the floor except him. Kryx teleported right above Ohko and swung her limbs quickly together with her eyes glowing. Suddenly, all of the remaining mercenaries and their Pokémon were slammed into each other after they were all pulled through the ice faster than they expected. Kryx threw them around the room like a pin ball machine before throwing them out another door.

The alien teleported next to a console and then stabbed her Probe into it, allowing her full access to all computers across the ship. "**OK, now gimme a second as I power down everything—**"

"**TRADEMARK CATCHPHRASE!**" Super Nut cried out as he threw a giant rock at the reactor with Sentinel firing a Shadow Ball and Ohko throwing a Focus Blast along with the Ferrothorn.

Those two were also screaming at the top of their lungs like lunatics. (Except Sentinel who didn't have any lungs—)

The engine room exploded violently from the three attacks and all meters nearby Kryx shot up to danger levels.

"**Well ok that works.**" Kryx spoke out as she took out her probe and turned off the forcefield trapping the Dragon Clan Estate deactivated the Freezing mechanism from the ship, releasing all gold frozen Pokémon. "**I wonder why all my experiments end with explosions though.**" She teleported herself and the three others out before the reactor went critical.

[At the same time.]

Lily blasted some ice types trying to get to her before she noticed something up in the air.

Anto was beside her and saw how the forcefield around the ship instantly vanished. Something told him that this next moment would be pretty rough.

"_Lily, shield!_" Anto spoke quickly.

Thankfully, the grass type was powered up with several Quiver Dances after the fighting started and did her best to cover up her allies who she could see within the dust cloud over them.

Then Hunter J's ship exploded.

The shockwave blew away the dome surrounding the estate, and the smoke that filled the battlefield.

Hunter J, who was covering her face, looked back up in surprise. Her ship was taken down after all of their new upgrades?!

She underestimated her enemies and she needed to retreat now!

"Salamance!" She cried out as the mega Pokémon desecended and picked her up as she recalled her two Pokémon and sent a message to all of her members to retreat.

Mega Salamance flew high above the clouds and Hunter J cursed under her breath. She didn't know the Target would actually take down her ship from the inside out. If only she was more focused on him rather than—

Warning signals popped up on her visor as her instincts took over and commanded Mega Salamance to swerve to the right, avoiding a powerful Dark Pulse attack.

That wasn't right, the boy all had ground bound dark types! How could his attack reach here all the way up here—

As she turned her head back towards the attack, her eyes widened behind her visor.

"Like Hell I'm letting you escape!" Wes yelled out as he was riding on top of his newly evolved Hydreigon with his two starters beside him.

'His Zwelious evolved!? How!?' The silver haired hunter cried out before she pointed her Mega Salamance back to fire a Dragon Pulse.

"Umbreon!" Wes spoke as his pure dark type glowed, shielding all four of them with a Protect move.

While the attack made contact with the forcefield, Wes pointed towards Hunter J, "Hydreigon, Triple Dragon's Wrath!"

All three dragon heads roared with dark energy gathering around their mouths. The instant the attack and the forcefield went down, the tri headed Pokémon unleashed three dark dragon heads all rushing towards the Mega Salamance.

"Hyper Beam, full power!" Hunter J quickly yelled as Mega Salamance quickly fired the highly boosted attack towards the three Dragon Heads.

The blast spread out again, but Espeon shout out a Light Barrier to absorb the shockwave.

Hunter J and her Mega Salamance—now turned back into a regular Salamance—fell from the sky.

Wes pointed at them. "Espeon, stop them from falling!"

The psychic type did as he was told and caught both of them. Both of them looked unconscious and Wes set them both down gently.

"**Well it looks like Zwel—I mean Hydreigon's random Evolution spurts strikes again.**" Umbreon spoke out as they got off.

"**A Pokémon can only evolve twice, three times if you count mega evolution. How is that random?**" His psychic brother asked.

"**Huh, point taken. But isn't mega evolution something that happens a lot during battles? You could say if you mega evolve, you can evolve an infinite amount of times.**"

Hydreigon's main head turned towards the smaller dark type. "**I say Uncle Umbreon! Quite astute of you to make such a philosophical observation!**"

"**Yes! Quite good, quite good!**" "**I am quite impressed my good man!**"

The two brothers stared at the three headed Pokémon that all spoke those lines just now.

"… **Why do you have a northern accent? I don't recall evolution ever giving new accents.**" Espeon asked.

"**By jove! Whatever do you mean Uncle Espeon? We could always articulate ourselves in this manner, didn't we boys?**" The main head looked at the three others.

"**Why of course we did!**" "**You might wanna pay better attention mate.**"

Umbreon looked towards Epseon. "**Suddenly, I miss the identity crisis Zwelious.**"

Wes walked over towards his mother and her Salamance, making his three Pokémon pay close attention.

Wes removed his visor and kneeled down to her level before fixing her up to sit up straight on a tree.

He stared at her hard for a few seconds before sighing. "I heard the story from pops. On your tenth birthday, you were given a Growlithe that you loved and raised with all of your heart. But the truth was that your father was a gang boss and the Pokémon you received was given orders to pretend to be your friend and unlock the security of your mansion."

She didn't move, but her face almost seemed to scrunch. It was as if even mentioning that was giving her horrible nightmares.

"You ended up losing everything that day, and saw a Pokémon you thought was your closest friend betray you. Heck, I think I can understand why you are so cold heartless, and why you said all those things back there. It's better to not care when it hurts too much…"

After a few more moments of silence, Wes stood up. He took something out of his pocket and revealed it to be his dad's pocket watch that he made.

"Pops was actually quite good at 'fitting' in to society. He would always joke that normal people were just too boring. Honestly, I can't help but wonder what you would have been if you really were raising me like a real mother and son… maybe get back the life that was taken from you instead of clinging to hate for Pokémon."

Wes clutched the pocket watch tightly before slowly kneeling and placing his father's pocket watch in her hands.

"You might throw this away—even though it took me years to finally get it back—but I think you need it more than I do." Wes ended his one sided conversation and walked back to his Pokémon.

"Let's go guys."

"**Aren't we going to bring her to Summer?**" Espeon asked as Wes got on Hydreigon's back.

Wes looked back at his mother one more time. "That probably would be the smarter idea," He paused and thought about it. "But hey, if Anto didn't turn me in the first chance he got, maybe this could work out as well. We'll just say she escaped us at the last second."

"**Wes, your mom is definitely not you.**" Umbreon spoke out.

"Yeah I figured. But arresting my mom? Even if this is the first time I met her, it would leave a nasty taste in my mouth." Wes sighed. Yeesh, since when was doing the smart thing so against his instincts?

"**What about your dad's pocket watch? I thought you really really liked it?**" Espeon asked as he and his brother finally got on top of Hydreigon.

The Dark dragon started flying up with their riders on their back. "I had it taken from me last time without a choice. This time? I choose to give away. Besides, it's just a sentimental trinket anyway. I mean, who needs a pocket watch this day and age when everything is digital?"

Memories of his father passed by Wes' head. He smiled as he recalled all the fun he had with him. In a sense, he didn't need the watch anymore. It already reminded him of his bond with his dad.

New memories came up then: they were all about Anto, Summer, and Tracey. Deep down, the Snagger was glad to have that many friends.

Perhaps he was just moving on? Saying good bye to something about his past and walking towards his future with his friends in the present?

Nah that sounded too cliché.

"**Well come on then! Tea time is coming forthwith!**" Hydreigon's main head declared as they flew into the sky.

"Wait, what's with your accent?" Wes looked down on his newly evolved dragon.

"**By jove has every one gone mad? I've always sounded like this!**"

While the four of them were flying away and discussing Hydreigon's 'new' accent, down back below Hunter J's visor was still in recording mode.

* * *

**{Author notes}**

**So that's the battle between mother and son. Hopefully I did it some justice. In this world, even the bad guys such as team Rocket show some respect for their Pokémon and just want them to be powerful and are upset when they are not. **

**Hunter J takes it on a differently level entirely: selling off Pokémon for money? Hunting them down and forcefully tearing them away from trainers without so much of blink of an eye?**

**My headcannon for this was that a Pokémon must have done something horrible for her to justify see Pokémon not even as tools but as profit.**

**Wes briefly touched it, and I think it was a better idea to reveal rather than hide it.**

**In this story: Hunter J was a daughter of a Mob Boss and she found a Growlithe for her Pokémon. But the Pokémon she found was actually a spy for a rival gang. It fooled her into thinking it was her friend and let the enemy gang come in and ruin her home and family.**

**Now about evolution; I've seen a lot of it: anime, Manga, other fanfiction. Sadly it's starting to look predictable. The manga is a little more versatile, but still when they evolve, it's impressive, but you see it coming.**

**I love the idea of evolving for more power during battles, but it has been done to death a million times when a Pokémon evolves when it's about to lose.**

**My purpose, when handling evolution, is to put them in place when you guys least expect them, but it still seems to work for the story.**

**Thanks for reading and see ya soon. **


	43. Ep 43: Every Step Counts (Reupload)

Episode 43: Go Big or Go Broke! (Re-Uploaded with new edits.)

* * *

"She got away?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, slipped through my fingers at the last second." Wes responded as everyone was getting their bearings straight back at the Dragon Clan estate.

Liza was doing a head count, but so far everyone seemed to be accounted for. Clair was talking to the Police and Drayden after seeing a large explosion all the way from Opelucid City. Most of the police were near the wreckage of the ruined ship and were looking at the tech that was used to trap them.

Currently, almost everyone from the fight was recuperating inside an open and free area. "I still can't believe she's your mother! …" Summer screamed before really thinking about it and looking at Wes from head to toe.

"I know you're comparing me right now, but it's understandable. I actually haven't met my mom until today." The boy from Orre explained.

"But I thought your father was a clock maker?" Jamie asked. "How did someone like him get involved with her?"

The Snagger stayed silent as he looked over to Ben and Summer. "Hey, I've got to keep some secrets to make me seem interesting. Anyway, you alright Mute?"

"_I am._" He looked at Wes before smirking. "_Seriously though, I thought I had a complicated life._"

The Snagger noticed the smile and quickly said, "Tell me, have we actually met someone remotely normal?"

"… _Fair point._"

It was at this point that Charizard flew nearby Anto and his Pokémon.

"**Good job handling everything while I was out. It was horrible just watching everyone else fight while I couldn't even move my own body.**" He stretched out his wings. "**Speaking of moving, it's time to continue your training.**"

"_Wait what? But we just—_"

"**Tight! Bring it on flame breath! It's round 1!**" Ohko spoke out and interrupted his surprised trainer as he took a fighting stance towards Charizard.

"**Ohko, this is your third match, not first.**" Lily corrected the Sawk.

Anto shook his head. Even after a life threatening situation, Charizard was still adamant about their training. But what was more peculiar were his Pokémon who almost all quickly agreed despite after recently coming out of a real fight.

Kryx teleported nearby Wes. "**Wes? By any chance do you have a spare digital screen on you?**"

The Snagger looked strangely at the Alien. She never really interacted with him specifically before. "They're not hard to find, why?"

Kryx took out her DS and showed a 3d hologram in front of Wes showing a strange scouter device. "**I've been going over your mother's ship data and I found this weird blue print on something called a Battle AR. I wanted to see if I could build it since it was the only thing I could decipher.**"

Wes' eyes widened. His mind flashed with those Rainbow Aura Pokémon that Sied once called a Synergy Burst—gotta love how all bad guys just love to monologue even if he did fail to do anything to him during that time.

He and Kryx could make something that could finally give them an edge against all those mega Pokémon used against them.

"OK, sure. It'll be nice to finally even the odds." Wes spoke out before he and Kryx left back towards the estate.

"Anto!" Benga cried out from on top of a giant rock. "It isn't only the Pokémon who must train to be strong! You too must join in and strengthen your bond with your Pokémon!"

Anto looked to see Ohko and Charizard duking it out even though they were just in a fight before looking back at Benga all the way over there.

"_How?_" He linked to the teen.

He did not like the smile on the fiery red head's face as soon as he asked that.

He also did not see Benga's Garchomp, Ferland, somehow sneak up behind him despite almost being twice his size.

From the distance, watching the ground and dragon type Pokémon lift up the struggling mute boy, Clair was talking to Drayden, who had just arrived after seeing the large dome over his estate.

"Are you alright Clair?" The beard face man asked.

The Johto gymleader nodded. "We're fine Drayden. In fact, we owe our safety to that boy Benga brought in." She looked over to the boy still struggling to free himself from Ferland as the dragon type lifted him away into the woods with the fiery teen.

"Benga is here? Wait that boy!" The gym leader of Opelucid City said with shock as he spotted the boy before he left their sight.

The Blackthorn Gym Leader blinked with surprise. "Huh? You know him?"

"I have heard much about him from the other before they were…" He shook his head. "The point was that we already decided Black to be the hero to help us oppose Team Plasma. He is just a backup plan." He stated bluntly.

"I'm sorry, what?" The blue haired gym leader asked.

"I apologize. Much has been happening in Unova lately, but there is a favor I would like to ask both of you and Liza while you are still here. That boy will challenge my gym very soon, and I intend to make sure he will not get his badge."

Clair blinked in surprise. "Excuse me? I thought it was illegal for us to turn down proper challengers."

"You misunderstand. I'm not denying his challenge. I'm just making sure that he will not win it by the end of the week." Drayden spoke out strictly.

Clair wondered why the older man seemed so adamant in making sure that the boy would not get into this year's league. The blue haired gym leader also wondered why Drayden seemed so unusually cold since he usually was much kinder despite his strict demeanor. She looked worriedly at where the boy was taken and wondered how bad things were really going to get if Drayden was going to use the full power of dragon types on him.

* * *

[Several days later]

Anto gulped as he saw the rather tall gym. It was easily the highest building in the entire city.

"The Pokémon League is in ten days, Anto. I don't think even flying to the next gym will make us get there on time for the league." Summer spoke out to him.

"_I know I know. It's just… intimidating._" Man, he really had to throw back his neck to see the very tip of this gym up close.

"You've been training with Benga, Liza, and even Clair for the past three days! Of course you're ready! You've been battling that crazy strong Charizard nonstop!" The older ranger girl patted the young teen at the back.

"_Thanks Summer_," The boy spoke out before Wes handed him a scouter like object. "_Is this that thing you and Kryx have been working on?_"

"Yep. Just finished it. Kryx had a lot of spare parts and putting in the schematics was easier than I thought it would be. Guess Alien tech isn't that foreign after all—but don't go anywhere near cheese within a one hundred meter radius. Kryx says it will violently explode from the smell of cheese—don't ask me why."

Anto looked at the object cautiously. "_Is this really a good idea to put this near my head?_"

Kryx teleported in sight out of thin air. "**It has the Kryxialvoimepotark seal of approval!**" The Alien winked as she spoke out her full translated name.

"_I thought you accidentally blew up a planet?_" The trainer asked.

"**It was actually an empty solar system, but that was in the distant past!**" Why was she still smiling when she said that? The alien dismissed the fact she destroyed something large as a solar system as something as trivial as eating.

"_How distant?_" The brown eyed boy raised his brow.

"**I think… five earth months ago? That reminds me: if some stars stop shinning where they usually supposed to be, I want you to know that it's totally not my fault.**"

"Is it really safe to be around this guy?" Ben whispered to White. Obviously the idea of being around someone who accidentally destroyed a solar system recently was unnerving to say the least.

"… No…" White finally said after thinking about it. "It surprisingly isn't."

"_I heard that! And in my defense, it's not like I ask for these things to happen!_" The mute mentally emphasized.

"**So? Are you going to put it on?!**" The alien floated closer to Anto with excited eyes. He was tempted to say not at first, but then with how hopeful his Pokémon looked, so he decided it wouldn't hurt to try.

One of these days this soft heart would be the one to do him in.

He sighed before putting it on and activating the device.

Data streamed in as Anto read it quickly. The device scanned the entire area, before revealing special data on Kryx that seemed to set up her stats.

The boy blinked. "_Wow, it's showing me your stats… you've actually got some really decent special defense and special attack stats… so how do I activate the power boost I heard about?_"

"**I dunno.**" Kryx shrugged.

Anto's eyes widened before he looked towards Wes.

"Uhh yeah about that… I have no idea how it works." The older teen admitted.

"Wait, but you two made it!?" Jamie exclaimed and pointed to them.

"**I could only get the schematics and had to build some custom parts from whatever gear I had. I can build it—yes, but I never found the instruction for it besides the on and off button.**" The Elgyem explained.

"So you two just created something without knowing what it does?!" White asked with confusion.

"Look, some of the parts that Kryx used from her world are things even I don't understand fully. The device is a lot more complicated than I thought it was and when I tried to look up online for the information, I found it wasn't even the right model. This must have been a custom made version because the information on factory made ones was nothing like the blue prints Kryx downloaded."

After a few seconds of silence, Anto looked around with the scanner. "_Well to be fair, I already was a lab rat. Might as well be the one to field test this… that came out darker than I meant it to._" He said before looking back at everyone.

Hastily, he went into the gym.

When he got inside, he stopped, looked up, and dropped his jaw.

The place looked even bigger on the inside—are those flipping giant dragon statues!?

"Welcome Challenger." Anto looked to his right to see an older woman in what looked to be her late fifties. But she had really beautiful blonde hair and nice green eyes while she wore a large simple white sun dress with a red shirt.

As Anto's friends came after him, Benga's eyes widened as he saw the woman. "Auntie Koiya!" the flame haired teen ran up to hug the woman.

"Oh Benga, you've grown again since the last time I've seen you." The kind woman spoke out and hugged the teen back.

The two let go before Koiya introduced herself properly. "My name is Koiya. I help around the gym here in Opelucid City."

"She's also uncle Drayden's wife!" Benga added in, making everyone stare at the boy.

The woman giggled politely. "You must be the challenger I heard from Claire. I must ask you to simply do your very, very best in this gym battle." She said before walking away.

"That's odd." Benga noted as the older woman walked ahead.

"What is?" Ben asked.

"She never said the word 'very' twice before." The red haired teen responded.

The others and Jamie seemed confused at that. "Why is her saying it twice such a bad thing?"

"It's not bad. It's just that she doesn't usually say words like that twice unless she really wants something of a person." Benga explained.

Anto raised his brow. Did that mean she wanted him to battle at his best?

The boy knew he was facing against dragon type Pokémon, but he wondered what exactly he was going to expect. As he walked in, he was motioned to separate from the others and enter into a different room.

He saw the giant room filled with two titanic dragons twisting around each other before another attendant helpfully explained that he would have to go around these dragons and press certain switches to make the dragon reach all the way to their gym leader.

"_What happens if I fall down?_" Anto looked down at the surprisingly white floor.

The attendant simply laughed and said you would have to be a complete idiot to fall from here. That did not help the amnesiac in the slightest in feeling better.

He walked up towards the large dragon head… and looked down.

Ohhh! So that's how vertigo works—oh dear.

"**Are you alright fellow scientist?**" Kryx asked as she floated beside Anto.

The young teen adjusted himself after forcing himself to look back up. "_Just, catch me if I fall OK? Don't use that shield you put on me when we first met._"

Kryx saluted. "**Aye, eye!**"

"_Seriously, I know Drayden is rumored to be the strongest Gym Leader, but someone should have told the half man, half beard person that there are so many safety hazard violations in this gym. Does he want to get sued?_"

"**I understood nothing you just said!**" Kryx gleefully spoke out before Anto jumped off a dragon limb.

The mute sighed and strongly fought the urge to roll his eyes. "_I don't even know why I bother._"

Anto and his party handled against the gym trainers of this area. Each of them were no slouches compared to most of the other gym trainers he faced so far. Eventually, after moving through the puzzles of this gym, the boy made the two giant dragon heads meet.

The first impression Anto got was that Drayden really had a very intimidating aura around him.

"Welcome Anto!" The man screamed out.

Kryx gasped. "**Humans can communicate through facial hair!? I must take notes on this!**" Kryx quickly pulled out her 3DS.

Drayden unfolded his arms and took out a Poké Ball. "I have heard much from the others, but this sadly I must say that this is where your journey ends."

The boy blinked in surprise.

Drayden continued. "We already have our hero of Unova, and there cannot be any extra stragglers."

Hero? Wait was this about the dragon that N already summoned? About Zekrom!? He honestly completely forgot about him having a legendary with everything else happening around him! Zekrom was Unova's legendary dragon, and if N had him, did that mean that he was a chosen hero?

"_Wait, is this about N? What do you mean we already have our hero?_" The boy inquired.

"Zekrom's counter, Reshiram, has already chosen the trainer Black as his champion to face against his counterpart. We no longer have a need for you as your presence will only complicate Black's destiny to face the King of Team Plasma." He threw out his Pokémon, revealing it to be a powerful looking Druddigon. "This will be a three on three Pokémon battle. If you lose here, I will no longer accept any challenges from you."

The boy's eyes widened. "_You can't do that!_"

"If you've read the rule book, we are allowed to accept and decline challenges we wish after the first one. After you lose this, you will no longer be able to apply for this year's league." Drayden folded his arms as he stared at Anto's shocked and mouth dropping face. "Any questions?"

Kryx raised her limb. "**Does this book explain the strange mutation of your evolving beard?**"

Drayden was sort of expecting the questions to come from the boy, not his Pokémon but…

"Wait, what was that about my beard?" The gym leader made a motion with his hand towards the thing.

"_Kryx!_" Anto cried out.

"**What? He asked.**" The floating alien moved back a little.

"_Didn't you hear him?! If I lose here, I lose my chance to get into the league!_" Anto mentally communicated with shock.

"**Then don't lose.**" Kryx answered so simply, as if there was nothing more to it.

"_But this guy is basically the strongest Unova Gym leader and I haven't even won all of my gym battles!_" The boy screamed out.

"**So?**"

"_So!? How am I supposed to win against that!?_" Anto pointed.

Kryx shrugged her shoulders. "**When have the odds ever deterred you?**"

That suddenly silenced the mute boy as the words hung in his mind.

He sighed and pulled his hood over his head to cover his face. "_Wow, I whine and complain so much._"

"**You do that a lot.**" Kryx concurred.

"_Yeah,_" Anto took out a Poké Ball and tossed it into the air before catching it. "_I guess that's just my way I deal with things. I whine like a baby before facing it anyway. … The battlefield calls! Rise up, Takezo!_"

As soon as Takezo came into the field, Anto briefly thanked Kryx and recalled her back into her Premier Ball. He quickly took something out of his pocket and placed the Battle AR on his face under his hood. The scanner came to life and saw the amazingly above average stats the Druddigon of Dryaden was.

"Hmm…" The gym leader looked at the boy, but he could barely see the face of his opponent under his hood. "Druddigon, use Stealth Rocks!"

Takezo moved around as the rocks scattered across their side of the field and quickly slashed out his blade that was quickly imbued with dark energy.

Suddenly, Anto realized that Drayden wasn't even moving to make a command to counter Takezo's movement and quickly told him to back off, making the little normal type back flip several times to get away from the dragon type.

Why didn't the gym leader make any move? Was he expecting something—

"Attack with Flash Cannon!" Drayden suddenly yelled, making the dragon quickly inhale with silver light before unleashing a devastating beam within a several seconds. Takezo, sped away from the attack before jumping across the rocks that levitated between the two giant, dragon heads.

From there, Takezo countered with Thunderbolt. However, while not as fast as the normal type, the electrical attack barely seemed to bother the dragon type at all.

"Is that all you are capable off!?" Drayden angrily shouted. "You must have earned all of your badges by pure luck!"

Anto visibly winced at the shout. He did not win his badges by luck. He gave his all in each and every one of them.

The dragon type roared before jumping towards a nearby floating rock, and then kicking it with great speeds towards Takezo's platform. The Normal type quickly jumped towards the next floating rock before Anto quickly linked for him to use Detect in order to jump again to avoid another Flash Cannon that destroyed the rock he was on.

"**Why must destiny always attempt to crush me with boulders!?**" Takezo complained as he saw Druddigon summon more boulders and quickly jump towards one to grab it and launch it with herculean strength towards where Takezo was.

Long range was absolutely futile in this match up for Takezo. The fact the battle field was simply two giant dragon heads facing each other with rocks floating around really cut down on the normal type's maneuverability. Seeing as how this would only end up worse for the Samurai, Anto gave the go to close in and attack.

Takezo jumped away from another thrown boulder before jumping off towards Druddigon with his blade set ablaze with dark energy.

Suddenly, Anto's Battle AR started beeping as it detected some kind of energy spike around the eyes of his opponent. For a split second, Anto wondered what that meant.

"Glare!"

Druddigon's eyes glowed yellow as he saw Takezo's reflection on the surface of his eyes. Suddenly, Takezo found himself immobilized by paralysis mid air, making the Normal type as defenseless as a baseball thrown at a major league batter.

Druddigon ignited his tail with Dragon Tail then smacked the paralyzed Takezo hard right into the dragon head Anto was standing on.

The statue shook and the mute staggered from the vibrations, but he didn't care and quickly moved forwards towards the right eye where his friend was hit.

As the dust settled, Takezo was out cold from one hit without even damaging his opponent.

"Pathetic! That didn't even last five minutes!" Drayden shouted.

Anto clenched his fist and recalled his Pokémon. Kryx, Sentinel, and Lily were used on the way up here which just left Ohko and Super Nut as his only choices for this battle.

Anto threw out the Ultra Ball as Super Nut dramatically narrated his entrance.

"**And thus Super Nut makes his Dramatic entrance to face against a mythical beast of legend while standing on top of giant statues of mythical beasts of leg—**" Anto quickly told the Pokémon to use protect as most of the floating Rocks started flying right towards him.

The forcefield went up as the boulders crashed on to him, but strangely enough, Super Nut was still doing dramatic monologues.

"Does he ever shut up?" Drayden cruelly asked.

It was hard for Anto not to get angry at that. Insults to himself he could handle, but he was not going to stand there and let his own Pokémon get insulted.

"_Why you—_"

"**Anto!**" Super Nut cried out, surprising the boy for using his real name. "**Don't let him get to you.**"

"_What but he—_"

The boy was interrupted again as Druddigon launched a Flash Cannon while Anto wasn't prepared, hitting Super Nut dead on.

Anto covered himself and got angrier.

"**Anto!**" Super Nut cried out as the dust settled, he looked injured but he was still standing tall. "**Calm down. It's alright.**"

"_But he's a complete jerk!_" Anto yelled as he angrily glared at the gym leader.

Super Nut stared down the dragon Pokémon in front of him. "**That may be true. But the fact remains is that you are not at your best when you are angry.** **Thank you for caring about me, but just like you, I can stomach insults thrown my way.**" He turned his face back with kind eyes towards Anto. "**Doing the right thing doesn't always mean you will be liked for it.**"

The mute paused as he absorbed those words.

On the other dragon head, Drayden scoffed as he heard Super Nut's words without surprise, probably because he heard it from Brycen. "The right thing? You are just superfluous pawns that will do more harm than good. Druddigon, another Flash Cannon!**"**

Anto wasn't falling for it this time and quickly told Super Nut to get on top of the flying rocks via Power Whip to avoid the second blast then he quickly littered the arena with even more Stealth Rocks around Drayden's side of the field.

"What was the point of this!? Did you not pay attention!?" Drayden screamed as Druddigon jumped on a floating rock and then jumped again to kick one at full power towards Super Nut with a Flash Cannon being prepared to fire at whichever direction the Ferrothorn would dodge.

However, Super Nut quickly jumped and shot out two of his claw vines to two different boulders, and as the rock hit him, his claw vines stretched out to slow down the boulder.

"_Send it back._" Anto smirked as Super Nut sling shot the thrown rock back at Druddigon.

The dragon type panicked for a second before unleashing his Flash cannon at the boulder. However, the moment he did, something quickly shot out past the exploding rock: Super Nut performing a Gyro Ball move and slamming into the Dragon type with the force from the launch and smashing the opponent through several rocks before crashing into a lower limb of one of the giant dragon statues.

Super Nut stopped spinning and landed on one of the floating rocks as he moved his body in the direction of where Druddigon was launched.

Out of the smoke, two eyes shined gold as lasers shot out and shot and hit Ferrothorn in the face, revealing that Druddigon had used Glare again.

Quickly Drayden ordered his Pokémon to jump back and unleash his Dragon Claw on the Pokémon.

However, Drayden noticed something about the Ferrothorn before the attack could connect. Unlike the Patrat, the steel and grass type did not have electricity sparking all over him.

"_Protect!_" Anto called out, making the force field slam right into the face of the charging Pokémon. It was then Druddigon noticed that the Ferrothron's eyes were closed!

Drayden's eyes widened. His Ferrothon's eyes were closed that entire time? Then how did he know how to—oh right. The boy can send orders with his mind.

The pure Dragon type jumped back and attempted to rend the dual type with a Dragon Claw, but Ferrothorn jumped away and shot a rock at him with one of his vines. The Dragon Type landed on a lower Stealth Rock before blasting the incoming rock with Flash Cannon.

Drayden looked at the amount of cluttered rocks before commanding out, "Druddigon, pinball!"

The dragon type quickly looked around and seemingly jumped over two other rocks to grab onto a third rock then throw it some random direction.

One boulder hit off another boulder, and the impact reflected off and hit other boulders.

Then those boulders hit others, then the others hit other boulders…

It started a sort of chain reaction where all of the boulders were now moving around violently bumping and bouncing into each other, destabilizing the platforms and making them all move around violently.

Super Nut jumped around, but then mid jump Druddigon caught him by predicting the directions of the boulders and unleashed a powerful Dragon Claw on the Pokémon mid jump and smashed him into a larger floating rock.

"_Super Nut!_" Anto called out as the Ferrothorn smashed into the lower body of one of the dragons.

"Now Druddigon!" Drayden yelled out. The Dragon type jumped and quickly locked gazes with the Ferrothorn—meaning that it used Glare to paralyze the steel and grass type.

"**This is the end!**" The dragon Pokémon roared wildly as he descended to hit the Pokémon down below.

Ferrothorn looked up and his eyes still were filled with courage. "**A hero never gives up!**"

"_And they always have a sidekick!_" Anto proudly added with Super Nut as he threw his hand out. "_Power Whip now!_" He mentally screamed before streaming more information to his weakened Pokémon.

The self proclaimed hero powered through the paralysis and shot out a claw vine right into the gut of the descending dragon. Super Nut pushed on, stretching and lifting the dragon type higher with the extended limb.

"_You aren't the only one who was paying attention to the movement of the boulders!_" Anto cried out to Drayden as the gym leader noticed that Super Nut had pushed Druddigon up towards where half a dozen fast moving boulders were about to crush him at the spot Super Nut launched him!

The boulders all crashed on impact and out of the dust, Druddigon fell from the sky unconscious.

Quickly, Super Nut caught him with Power Whip and gently placed him onto a boulder then Drayden quickly recalled his Pokémon.

"I would have recalled him back in time." Drayden spoke out.

"**Perhaps, but it's not in my nature to ignore anyone in need.**" Super Nut answered. "**Nor is a hero so easily fooled.**" He looked back at Drayden despite electricity sparking around the less than nimble Ferrothorn.

"_Huh? What do you mean by that?_" Anto looked between Drayden and Super Nut staring down each other.

Drayden scoffed before throwing out his second Pokémon, Haxorus. "This is my second Pokémon! Get ready boy!"

"**Sorry Danger Damoiseau, it's something I can't say.**" Super Nut slowly stood up and faced the Haxorus.

Super Nut's Stealth Rocks activated, making his half of the boulders around launch themselves towards the dragon type Pokémon.

Drayden shouted out. "Dragon Dance!"

"_You've got to be kidding me._" Anto mentally panicked at the sight of the other dragon Pokémon becoming stronger and faster.

Drayden pointed at the paralyzed Ferrothorn. "Now! Outrage!"

The dragon set himself ablaze with power and ran like a wild beast towards the injured hero. Mustering strength, Super Nut surrounded himself in a protect move. It held, but the buble was thrown away from the heavy impact and crashed through more of the boulders.

"I still have two full health Pokémon left!" Drayden went back to insulting as Anto looked back from watching Super Nut get knocked away. "How did you even win your other badges!?"

His other badges?

All… seven… of his badges…

_(This gym focuses on…_)

A random memory re surfaced in the amnesiac's mind. It didn't seem important at the time, and he simply glossed over it during his journey.

Anto smiled.

But the fact that this particular memory came up was all he needed to fight back.

"_Super Nut! It's time to show off your new Fusion Moves!_"

"Fusion Moves?" Drayden and his Haxorus looked surprised.

Ferrothorn slowly stood back up and launched more Stealth Rocks into the air, but strangely enough these particular rocks were pure green.

"What are you up to?" The gym leader demanded as he looked to the boy, but the amber eyed boy said nothing and fiercely looked back at Drayden. "… Haxorus! Whatever those green rocks are, destroy them one by one! Dragon Tail!"

Anto actually seemed surprised by that action, as Drayden saw that as a good sign for his Dragon type to destroy half a dozen boulders within thirty seconds.

However, as soon as he destroyed the seventh boulder, something happened.

Sprouts were growing on Haxarous!

Drayden's eyes widened as the plants started growing around "Wait! Those look like—"

"_Leech Seeds_."

Drayden looked back at the boy who had a calm smile with his hood off but his Battle Scouter AR still on. "_This a new move I created with Super Nut, the combination of Stealth Rocks and Leech Seed: Stone Drainers! Once the rocks attack an opponent, not only do they get damaged but they get seeded from the second half of the attack from Leech Seeds hidden inside each rock. I was planning on throwing one to you or making you hit one before attacking Super Nut again, but you just made things easier for me,_" Anto pointed back to Drayden. "_Pretty careless for the so called strongest gym leader in Unova!_"

Oh Arceus did it feel good to turn the tables on this guy!

"Tch!" Drayden grunted before throwing his hand out."Haxorus, Out Rage again! Burn those pathethic leaves off you!"

The dragon set himself ablaze, but the leaves still stayed around the dragon type.

Even though he was paralyzed, Super Nut was slowly regaining his strength and energy back.

Haxrous didn't waste time and quickly rushed for the Pokémon all the way on the other side of the flying rock field.

Super Nut tried to move, but he couldn't and was body checked by a dragon dance boosted Haxarous and blasted through the rock into another lower limb of one of the dragons, cracking it further than the others so far.

Haxarous may have had one of the best attack power stats in Unova, but Ferrothrons were known for their defense.

Super Nut held on and while pinned down, started spinning as fast as he could, performing a Gyro Ball and warding back the Haxarous who was already damaged from ramming body first into Super Nut's spikes.

"Haxarous, use our opponent's limbs against them!" Drayden cried out, surprising Anto with what he meant by that.

With superior speed, Haxarous quickly got behind Super Nut and grabbed one of his vines before pulling it over his shoulder and whipping Super Nut into the dragon limb like a tethered ball. Haxarous didn't let up and quickly pulled and whipped Super Nut like a cartoon character, slamming on one side and then the other.

"_Super Nut!_" Anto cried out in horror as Haxarous stopped and quickly spun the vine and Super Nut around him in a circle before releasing him back towards the heads where he crashed through a dozen rocks before crashing into another big floating Stealth Rock.

Super Nut twitched before falling unconscious as he got stuck on the rock he was thrown into.

Anto quickly recalled him.

"_Thank you so much, buddy. You're going to help us win this._" Anto then put his container away and took out a Great Ball. "_Tear the field asunder! Rise up, Ohko!_"

The fighting type appeared before being attacked by more than a dozen boulders. Out of the dust, Super Nut threw off his cloak and looked over to Haxarous.

The seeds around the dragon type glowed and Ohko felt whatever damage he had from the rocks heal up.

"A cripple is your last Pokémon?! How bad of a trainer can you be!?" Drayden insulted once more before commanding Haxarous to charge right at Ohko. The dragon type had his tail glow with dragonic energy as Ohko ran up to meet him. The fighting type threw a punch, only for Haxarous to easily dodge and spin his tail to slam Ohko into the floating rocks.

Ohko was getting a little energy back but Haxarous pressed his speed advantage and avoided another attack from Ohko and used Dragon Tail again on the fighting type. However, the second time, Ohko regained composure mid air and landed on a rock.

Drayden then spoke out with his hand stretched out and pointed to Anto. "This is pathetic! I still have my secret weapon in store, but it looks like I won't even need to use it! How do you intend to beat me?!"

(Anto recalled the time when Takezo fought against an evolved rock Pokémon for his first badge. His mind flashed with how he won even with that overwhelming disadvantage.)

Anto stayed strong and actually responded in a calm manner. "_When I battled for my first gym badge, Cilan taught me something,"_ Despite the confused look in Drayden's face, Anto went on."_Their gym was based off the ability to overcome an enemy's advantage._"

Haxarous went in for another fast Dragon Tail towards the fighting type. As the attack came speeding towards the blue Pokémon, the Haxarous gawked in shock as he saw his tail stopped dead in its tracks by Ohko's hand, and he wasn't even using a move!

(The young teen recalled the time he battle Lenora, he learned new information about himself, about his Pokémon, and about his opponent as he battled hard for that second badge. Most of all, he learned that even his own Pokémon could surprise him and themselves.)

"_In Lenora's gym, I learned that even in a battle, you never stop learning about people, their Pokémon, about anything—in fact—that you can learn so much more than any written book!_"

Ohko grabbed Haxarous' tail and crushed it, causing the move to stop and making the dragon wince in pain before Ohko kicked Haxarous' chin hard before spinning on his heel and side kicking the dragon type back onto the face of Drayden's dragon head statue, causing the ground beneath the gym leader to shake.

The gym leader grunted as he saw Haxarous slowly get up, only to get his energy sapped by the seeds and faint.

"You still will not defeat this last Pokémon! Go Garchomp!" Drayden cried out after recalling his Haxarous.

The dragon roared mightily and looked towards Ohko, who readied his fighting stance. The Stealth Rocks and Stone Drainers attacked the Garchomp, but even with the seeds that started growing on the dual type, the dragon Pokémon still looked strong.

"_Let me guess: it's a mega, isn't it?_" Anto deadpanned.

His answer came out when Drayden revealed a mega bracelet from his pocket and placed it on.

The evolution light enveloped the dragon. That power was more than enough to erase the growing leaves on the Garchomp as he completed his transformation to becoming Mega Garchomp.

"A Mega versus a one armed fighting type. Now it's finally over!" Drayden spoke out.

(The challenger flashed back to when he faced Burgh in his rematch. How he inspired the bug type gym leader by pulling moves that even he didn't know he was capable of imagining.)

Anto closed his eyes and inhaled. "_Against Burgh, I learned to be creative even in the strangest of situations._" When he opened his eyes again, he noticed something on his battle AR screen.

Ohko reached into his Karate Gi and took out the Choice Band and fixed it into his head.

"What is the point of that!?" Drayden yelled as Mega Garchomp unleashed a powerful Dragon Claw to face Ohko who had a Dual Chop attack ready. The two attacks clashed , but Mega Garchomp over powered Ohko even with the Choice Band.

(The Amnesiac recalled how Elesa turned his own tactics against him, and almost dominated the battle because of that. He recalled how caring about other people, even your opponent, can bring out the best in you.)

Anto still seemed calm and determined. "_Against Elesa, I learned how to use my opponent's advantage against them._"

Ohko jumped on a rock and then removed his choice band before using the many rocks surrounding them to avoid Mega Garchomp.

(The Mute had flashbacks of when he struggled against Clay. No matter what he did, Clay always seemed to have an answer to what he did—but it didn't deter him in the slightest from trying.)

"_Against Clay, I learned that there are unfair battles and that sometimes I won't win._"

Drayden was getting tired of this and quickly commanded Mega Garchomp to use Draco Meteor, the attack exploded and destroyed all floating Stealth Rocks and Stone Drainers, clearing the entire air space between the two heads and leaving no more place for Ohko to run.

(Music pounded Anto's ears when he battled Roxie. It was his first six on six battle with all of his Pokémon. Each of their characters shined through in their own individual fights.)

"_Agasint Roxie, I learned to embrace my Pokémon's flaws_," As the smoke died down, Ohko stood in front of Anto on his side of the dragon head, while Mega Garchomp stood on Drayden's dragon head statue. "_And their strengths._"

Ohko smiled a huge dorky smile and gathered energy that Drayden had never seen before coming form a fist.

"You have nowhere left to hide!" Drayden yelled. "It's over!"

(Anto recalled how excited he was to watch Brycen's movies, and how he was estatic to be using costumes to both inspire and throw off Brycen off his game. Yet he still loved the actor's movies and has been a huge fan ever since.)

Anto still went on. "_And from Brycen, I learned that behind each battle, is a trainer with their beliefs, their ideas!_"

"What is the point of all that!? Why have you been doing but spouting nonsense for a while now!?" Dryaden yelled out as he ordered Garchomp to end this with a powerful Outrage attack.

Anto gripped his fist hard. "_The point is that with everything I learned from my journey, I am going to beat you!_" He placed his hand on the Battle AR and finally pressed the button.

-SYNERGY BURST ACTIVATED-

Those words lit up in Anto's screen.

As Garchomp came up, Ohko ran to meet the fully evolved pseudo legendary head on. The two attacks clashed with equal strength mid air as Ohko started to be enveloped with rainbow aura.

"What the!?" Drayden cried out in shock as a crippled fighting type was going toe to toe with one of the most powerful Mega Evolutions for dragon types.

Ohko's fist clashed with Garchomp's head, but the dragon type noticed something odd with the fist Ohko was using.

Was it using Ice?

Wait, no. Fire?

Huh? Electricity!?

Anto clenched his fist as he made a punching motion in the air. "_Tri-Fusion Move: Elemental Uppercut!_"

Ohko's fist ignited with three types of attacks and with the power of the Synergy Burst, overwhelmed Mega Garchomp and knocked him into the air, the energy from the attack shot out and even destroyed the roof of the gym!

"What was that!?" Drayden yelled out as he saw the fighting type upper cut his Mega Pokémon.

Anto smiled with relief. They really did train hard in those few days, needing a new way to push further than before. Benga gave him inspiration for it: using everything they had learned and the form of a new skill for all his Pokémon: Tri-Fusion. The ability to use three moves together instead of two. The power was multiplied more than the fusion moves, but this time, they could only use it once per fight.

Ohko's Tri Fusion: Elemental Uppercut, combined three moves: Thunder, Ice, and Fire Punch all together into one elemental boom that actually did more damage and elemental stats than compared to a regular Tri Attack.

And the effect was amazing, Garchomp's body had fire, ice, and electricity around him after the attack made contact.

The Mega Garchomp's body was covered in light… then it reverted back to normal as both he and Ohko landed on Drayden's head.

And Garchomp was out cold.

A few seconds passed until a smile slowly appeared on Anto's face then grew bigger and bigger.

"_We did it! Oh my god we won! Ohko! Great Job!_" The amnesiac jumped up and down in joy and relief.

Garchomp slowly got up, but was surprised when Ohko offered him a hand. "**That was super tight yo! We gotta do that again!**" The fighting type smiled happily.

Drayden sighed as Garchomp took Ohko's offer to lift him up.

It was a good thing his beard covered most of his face after all because no one noticed the small, but proud smile the gym leader had.

* * *

[Later]

"And this is the Legend Badge. With it, you now have eight badges and can enter into the league." Drayden spoke out as he gave Anto his last crest to enter into the league.

"Way to go Anto!" "Congratulations!" "That was awesome!" "Good Job, mute." All of Anto's friends congratulated the boy, since they were watching the fight from a different room.

Drayden's wife, Koiya, walked up to her husband with a smile. "It looks like you owe me dinner of my choice."

The bearded man coughed.

It was then that Anto noticed that despite all the insults Drayden spoke against him, there was something off about him right now.

Then the boy recalled what Super Nut said about heroes not being so easily fooled.

Anto walked up to Drayden.

"What do you want? You got your badge, you can go." The stern man said.

The young boy smiled gently. "_I figured out what Super Nut meant by not being fooled. All that time, you were just testing me, weren't you?_"

Drayden said nothing, but seeing his wife holding in her giggles was more than a good enough answer.

Then his wife lightly shoved her husband's back. "Go on, he won, so he deserves to hear why you treated him so poorly."

It seemed the tough gym leader's weakness was his wife as he sighed and let down his arms. "It's true. I've been harder on you than any other challenger this year. This is because you are our last hope."

Anto and his friends looked surprised.

"Team Plasma's King N… has just defeated Alder and is now currently the champion of Unova."

"What?" Benga asked in shock while everyone else stayed stunned in silence.

Drayden nodded solemnly. "What's worse is that one of the trainers we hoped to face him, Black, has gone missing."

White gasped. "What!? Black is missing!?" She asked with very deep worry.

"Please let me finish." Drayden tried to calm her down by continuing to talk. "With the league within a week, with Team Plasma gaining title over the Champion, with most of the Unova Gym Leaders gone, and with Black currently MIA, the only one left to help Unova in its time of need is you, the second trainer chosen by the gym leaders," The last gym leader pointed to Anto. "I did my absolute best to test you if you were ready to face the challenges up ahead. Thankfully, everything all the gym leaders that faced you said was as true as they said about Black."

"_Me?_" The boy pointed to himself with utter shock.

"You, an amnesiac that woke up only a few months ago in a small city, are now the only thing standing between Team Plasma's plans and their ideals of separating Pokémon and Humans." Drayden sighed. "The only way to fight N is to win the Tournament, and while there are other powerful trainers there, none of them have a stake in this as much as you and Black did."

Anto and everyone else remained silent.

"You've come a long way here," Drayden put a hand on Anto's shoulder. "But this last leg of your race will be the hardest one yet."

The mute couldn't believe it.

From a complete zero, nobody, or even someone unlucky as him had just become Unova's last hope.

If anyone dare says, 'No pressure or anything.' He was going to barf.

Oh wait, he was about to anyway—

BLLLRRGGHHH!

"Eww! Anto!" "Man that's gross!" "I think we need to bring him to the Pokémon Center!"

Needless to say, Unova was going to have a very very long month.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**(Post edit#1: Saw some mistakes had to re upload this because I accidentally erased my doc. Sorry!)**

**From Zero to Hero, Anto has finally earned the right to enter into the league and has gained the power of Synergy Burst!**

**However, it seems like Black is missing, and Alder is no longer the Champion!**

**What will happen next? Will Anto not get sick to his stomach—I think he's actually going to feel stressed for a while before the tournament.**

[Extra: After the Gym Battle]

Anto wanted to get his mind off that recent and heavy revelation, but as soon as he entered into the Pokémon Center, he was greeted by a strange convention.

A man wearing a cheese for a hat, or a hat that looked like a giant cheese walked up to the boy with a platter of assorted cheese. "Hi! We're having a Cheese Appreciation Convention! Want some free cheese?"

Before Anto could react, he noticed his Battle AR violently sparking with alarms going off—

**(BOOM!**)

Eventually, Kryx and Wes were finally able to work out the Battle AR's allergic (and explosive) reaction to cheese.

It's just too bad Anto was one of the first people being billed for free cheese (and Drayden sent him a bill for all the damages to his Gym from their battle.)

**{Author Notes}**

**It's official: Anto will only truly feel at peace when the fat lady sings—joke. See you guys soon.**


	44. Ep 44: Interlude 2

To say that a man like Gonzap could even show signs of fear would be an insult to his pride. He would admit that he was nervous, but he would never show it to anyone. He especially didn't want _these _people to notice.

"So… from what I've been getting is that you want us to cause a commotion while you guys do whatever the heck you want?"

The blonde and red eyed beauty in front of him held out the suitcase of Poké Balls to him. "Here, we followed Cipher's Shadow Pokémon Process, the Pokémon of your choice have been turned into Shadow Pokémon."

Gonzap took the spheres back.

The woman then continued speaking. "As for your question: yes. We will require you to capture their attention. You don't need to make yourselves at risk, just catch their attention."

"… I don't like beating around the bush any more: we heard you know where Wes is, and I want to know where he is." Gonzap asked.

"Well," The female across the table leaned in forward towards Gonzap and his right hand man, Wakin. "That's going to be a longer conversation."

[Meanwhile]

"_You guys sure you're going to be alright?_" Anto asked as Summer, Ben, and White prepared themselves to split.

"We have to find Black, Anto. I'm really worried about him." White explained as she rode on the back of a Latios—who was summoned all the way from Oblivia by Ben. Besides Summer and the ranger who brought him here, everyone was moderately surprised to see another legendary Pokémon though by then they had a high level of tolerance against the unexpected.

"There's also the fact that we were sent here to find Keith and Jack: two missing rangers. Maybe Black might have an idea of where these two people are or if he's seen them." Ben explained as he helped White get a more stable position on Latios.

"Sorry we have to leave again, Anto." Summer, with Flow on her lap, were getting on top of her Staraptor.

"_It's fine. Just be sure to find him soon. I'd feel bad that the guy who helped me get into the League in the first place couldn't even join._"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he'll get into the league in time." White smiled softly. "I also know that he's also been looking forward to battling you."

Anto blinked in surprise.

"Ever since he saw you battle in Nimbasa City during the Music Festival, he's been getting pumped about the idea of battling you in the league." White explained.

"_I-I never knew that._"

"You should worry about Benga though. He seems to have taken his grandpa being defeated pretty hard." White spoke out.

"_For now, Jamie and Wes are doing what they can but… yeah. I suppose he needs a friend right now._" Anto rubbed the back of his head. "_I honestly miss his hyper active tendencies._"

Ben nodded before he, Summer, and White started gaining altitude. "Well, good luck Anto! We'll be rooting for you!"

Anto gave him his thanks before they all flew off, just leaving him with Benga, Jamie, and Wes.

When the mute got back, he found out that Benga was missing and Wes and Jamie thought that he just walked to clear his head.

Anto had a feeling he knew where he was and quickly told Kryx to teleport him—alone—to the area he had in mind.

The training grounds where Anto and Benga trained before he battled Drayden. There was a hidden waterfall at the back area of the estate where Anto and Benga found out about the potential of the Tri Fusion move and had all of his Pokémon work out the basic concept of using it.

In front of the waterfall lake was Benga and Ferland, and his Volcorona, Rei just looking at the lake.

Anto recalled Kryx before walking up to the guy, making all three of them look over to see Anto raising a friendly wave.

"_Yo._"

"Hey." Benga responded dourly.

Anto sat nearby Benga. "_I'm sorry about your grandpa. I met him once, you're a lot like him._"

The light in Benga's eyes lit up again at the mention of his granddad. "Yeah, he's amazing! No matter how much I tired, I could never beat him…" The teen's smile died down again. "I guess, I wanted to be the one to beat him out of his title. Pretty selfish don't ya think? Unova is in danger and I'm disappointed I couldn't beat my old man fair and square."

"_You still can,_" The fiery teen looked to his raven haired friend. "_Your grandpa may have lost, but that's only because N had a freaking legendary Pokémon on his side. Hard to win against that, even if you are a champion, so even if your grampa isn't champion, I still think he's someone worth surpassing none the less._"

Benga looked down on the water. "If Grampa just had his most trusted Pokémon, he could have won, legendary or no legendary."

Anto raised his brow.

"A few years back, Grandpa's Hydreigon passed away from old age. It was his first Pokémon and that's also why Drayden and my Grandpa get along so much, because they were both part of the dragon clan here in Unova that gave them their first Pokémon." Benga explained. "Grandpa didn't really think dragon Pokémon were the only ones worth honoring, so he sorta got detached from the Dragon Clan's teachings."

That explained why Benga was associated with the dragon clan in Unova. Alder was originally a part of them.

"Ever since he died, Grandpa has been playing more with me. I think… it was his way of mourning for his friend by spending time with those that were still alive. He never did any hardcore training after the death of his first partner."

Anto accepted that and the only sound left around them was just the waterfall nearby them.

"Don't let him fool you, despite his talent, Alder was one of the laziest people I had ever met."

The two quickly looked back to see Drayden walking towards them. The two young teens quickly stood up.

"Believe it or not, I see a bit of me and Alder in you and Anto." Drayden chuckled whimsically, making the two teens look at each other. "When we were young, Alder had a nasty habit of fooling around. My wife joked that I have all this white hair because of all the stress Alder put me through as kids upto today. Ugh, I recall the day he forced me into 'picking up chicks' when we had duties to attend to." The normally strong and stoic man seemed to tenderly recall his past.

"How did that go?" Benga asked with curiosity.

"… You are never getting that story out of me." Drayden went back into his tough persona with double effort.

"Then I'll just ask Auntie Koiya." Benga quickly spoke out as Anto rolled his eyes.

"That was the day he met me and Alder's wife, Lenora." The three humans and two Pokémon looked over to see Koiya walking behind her husband.

"Wait, grandpa never told me the story of how he and grandma met." Benga raised his brow.

"That's because your grandfather's idea of courting women was—"

"We do not talk about that!" Drayden suddenly interrupted his wife with a hint of panic.

His wife put hands on her hips. "I'm sure my grand nephew deserves to know of how he came to be. After all, _you_ actually agreed with him."

"I _went through_ with it, yes! But I never agreed with it from the moment it left his mouth!" Drayden adamantly exclaimed. "He caught me off guard when he did it as well!"

"Tell me! Tell me!" Benga excitedly spoke out.

"Alder thought that playing heroes would help them get dates." Much to the gym leader's horror, his wife went on. "So he had his Hydreigon literally snatch me and Lenora off the ground and scale a high tower, where he and my husband would come and save us like heroes."

Both boys dropped their jaws while Drayden paled. (No one could tell if his mouth was open because of his face beard.)

"I was terrified out of my skull and screaming like a banshee." Koiya smiled sweetly as she recalled the traumatizing event.

She then went on explaining how the Hydreigon brought them to the highest tower and Alder 'attempted' to rescue them—before Drayden kicked his friend into the floor and demanded that Hydreigon let go of the two of them.

He apologized profusely, and even forced Alder into the ground—via pushing his head into the floor— to apologize to the both of them. However, Koiya was still so terrified and shocked, so Drayden had kindly went up to her to see if it was alright. At that time, Drayden was quite a well built and handsome man, so Koiya may have started falling for him at first sight. (Granted she was also recently in a scare of her life, so one could argue it was the suspended bridge effect where you 'fall in love' with the opposite gender you see first on a falling bridge.)

Overall, that was basically how Drayden and Koiya met, because Alder wanted to pick up chicks. (Alder and his wife Lenora's story is something else completely.)

Benga started laughing as did Anto after hearing the story. Ironic that Alder's unorthodox way of finding women scored them the love of their lives.

"Stop laughing!" Drayden barked.

No matter how threatening the gym leader was, the two kept laughing.

Koiya then came up to Benga. "It will be alright Benga. If there's anything else you inherited from your family, it's the ability to find lifelong friends from unlikely people. They're the ones who help him up."

Benga glanced over to Anto, who then rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Speaking of help," Drayden loudly stated. "I have been invited to host the League Tournament this year. My wife and I are heading there via limo to meet with Mr. Goodshow in the Unova league. You and your friends are coming with us there."

"We're going in a Limo!?" Benga asked excitedly.

"Do not bring out any of your Pokémon! It's owned by someone else!" Drayden scolded like a father would on an excited child.

Still Anto smiled; it looked like Benga would be alright. However, his own troubles were just beginning.

[Much later]

Here he was, the Unova Pokémon League, it was far more extravagant than he first thought. Not to mention there were a lot of trainers here with strong looking Pokémon all around.

Drayden stood by Anto and folded his arms. "There's less of them this year."

Anto sighed. Even when it was supposed to be easier with less participants, it still looked like he was going to be having a lot of trouble.

"Wow! Look at this place! There are many strong trainers here!" Benga cried out as he ran away from the limo like a bullet to stare and bother other trainers.

"Wow. Look at this place. There are many suckers I can pickpocket here." Wes spoke out in a somewhat serious but lazy tone as he walked briskly ahead.

Jamie came out and stood beside Anto before sighing.

"You should go and sign up. Show your badge case, and since you don't have a PokéDex, you'll have to fill out a form. Then I'll send someone to bring you four into your rooms," Drayden looked over to where Benga was already starting to bother some trainers and their Pokémon. (Wes was abusing that distraction for free stuff) "In case they don't get kicked out by security. I have someone to meet."

With that Drayden left the two young teens.

Said two teens watched as their other companions were causing distress to the other contestants. (Knowingly and Unknowingly.)

"_Let's just go._" Anto spoke out before leaving with Jamie.

As the two walked, Anto realized something. "_I just realized; this is the first time you and I are alone together._"

"Huh? Well umm yeah?" Jamie asked with confusion. Anto didn't even have his Pokémon out, so why was he saying this? Though a very, very small part of her mind was panicking at the thought of a boy and girl being alone together.

"_I-I don't know if I should be asking this, but who was your brother? If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine, but I just wondered who he was since I recall you didn't say…_" Anto stopped talking as he realized he was getting awkward.

Jamie relaxed a little if that was what Anto was asking. She was surprised he didn't ask why she had hidden her gender from the beginning or even how her parents died. Did Anto really respect her privacy that much?

A small smile of comfort spread across her face. "My brother was a lot like you," Anto looked at her. "He was an amazing trainer and was one of the best battlers I've ever seen. I've always wanted to be like him."

A part of him wanted to ask why she didn't go on a journey herself, but feeling that was also a personal reason, he asked this instead. "_Why do __I__ remind you of him? I'm not that strong of a trainer._"

"Well I think you are strong, but that's not what made him my favorite battle to watch. He always made his bade his battles fun. When I first saw you battle with your Pokémon, you and your Pokémon looked like they were enjoying themselves, and when you seemed to be losing, you held on with a smile on your face. I… admired that part of you where no matter what you also seemed to bring the best out of anyone you battle." Jamie smiled brightly at the thought of it.

"_Y-You really think I can do that?_" Anto blushed at how nice her smile was.

"You already have." A blush also appeared on Jamie's face as she admitted that.

The two broke eye contact and looked towards the walls in the hall they were walking down. Huh, getting to that registration center was a lot harder than they thought it would be.

"Anto? Anto!"

They both turned to see a very stylish and pretty girl head towards the boy.

"_T-Tiana?_" Anto cried out before the amethyst eyed girl stood in front of him with an excited smile…

Before hugging him in an instant.

Jamie stared at the girl as she let go of Anto and hopped a small distance away.

"You made it to the league!? Congratulations!" She spoke out happily.

"_T-Thank you? But what are you doing here?_" Anto asked with startled confusion.

Tiana tilted her head cutely. "My sister and her boyfriend are participants in this League. I'm tagging along to support them. But I'll also cheer for you as well."

"_Really? Y-you don't need to._"

"But I want to!" She said. "Consider it a thank you for that time back in Aspertia City."

"Erhm!"

Anto suddenly felt a dark presence come over him as he looked over to Jamie, who had a smile that almost seemed forced. "Anto, who is this?"

"_O-Oh right! Jamie, this is Tiana. I met her back at Virbank City Tiana, this is Jamie. She's been a travel companion with me for a while._"

Huh? Why was Tiana's smile different? It looked less natural for some reason.

"Wow, I didn't know Anto was traveling with such a_ pretty girl_." Tiana spoke out as she held out her hand towards Jamie for her to shake.

Jamie took Taina's hand and shook it. "Thank you, I think you're pretty too. I didn't know Anto _knew_ about you and didn't tell us."

Said mute had this distinct feeling there was something hidden along the lines he was supposed to be reading.

"Anto!"

The amnesiac almost toppled over before he noticed Bianca tackling him into a huge bear hug.

"I knew you would make it into the league! You always were an amazing trainer!" Bianca smiled before opening her eyes and seeing Jamie and Tiana.

Wait, did Bianca's grip around his neck just get tighter or was that just him? (Please let that just be him…)

"Oh hello. Who are you two?" Why did Bianca have the same type of smile as the other two girls? And what was this feeling of dread and danger the black haired boy had never felt before that kept on rising!?

"_Uhh Bianca? This is Jamie and Tiana._" Anto didn't know if they were really listening to him, or if he should even be speaking right now.

"Wow I didn't know you knew such pretty girls Anto," Why was she saying the same thing as the other two girls? "And you didn't even tell me about them."

There was something going on here, but something told him that it was best not to realize what was going on here.

"Thank you for the compliment, but you're really cute yourself Bianca. I love your skirt and cap, it goes so well with your hair!" Tiana spoke out.

"Well I love your earrings! Where did you get those?" Bianca spoke out as she let go of Anto and started talking with the girls about jewelry and make up.

But why was everyone around them slowly moving away from them?

"Hey Anto! You'd never guess—see you later in our room!"

The mute quickly turned to see Wes and Benga catching up to him before suddenly turning on their heels and walking faster in the opposite direction.

Anto had some choice words for them as he saw them leave. However, they will not be put down here.

"So Anto," The boy slowly turned towards the three girls all with the same smile towards him. "I can't wait to crus—battle you in the league. See you later!" Bianca spoke out before running away.

"_Wait, what was she about to say?_" Anto pointed in the direction where Bianca left.

"You know Anto, my sister has been _dying_ to see you since last time. I hope you can meet her again." Tiana giggled.

"_T-Tiana? But didn't she try to kill me with that scary Absol of hers!?_"

"She was just joking. I'm sure. Bye~!" Tiana waved before making a quick leave after answering Anto a little too quickly.

"_What just happened?_" Anto asked before he felt a stinging slap sound at his spine. He looked back at Jamie in surprise.

"Oh sorry, I thought I saw something and I tried to swat it off. I'll be going head and finding my room. See you later Anto." Despite her smile, Anto was sure he felt some anger coming from Jamie.

As she walked away, Anto's rubbed his back while wondering in his mind what the heck happened. What the heck!? Why was she angry!? What did he do!? What was with those girls!?

Around him, all the people there were giving him such disappointed (and somewhat dark) looks.

Anto sighed.

This was going to be a long tournament.

[Later On]

After filling out his form, Anto looked around the area. To his surprise, he saw someone he didn't expect to see there.

"_Hey! Sebastian!_"

The older chestnut haired teen looked around in shock at the voice before he turned back and saw the young boy waving at him.

"Well if it isn't Anto. You actually made it to the Unova League?" He spoke out before ruffling the young boy's hair.

"_Nice to see you too, Lucario._" The telepathic mute addressed the steel type next to him.

"**Mr. Anto. I am looking forward in having my rematch with Sir Takezo.**" The Aura Pokémon stated.

"**Wait this is the guy, Lucario has been talking about?**" Anto glanced over to see a female Dragonite. "**He's just a kid! Are you losing your touch or something Lucario?**"

"**Why do you always underestimate others?**" A male Lapras asked who was staying nearby the edge of a pool.

"Ahh right. Anto, meet the rest of my team. You've seen Lucario, but over there is Charizard, my strongest; Dragonite over there is a bit stiff but she means well; Lapras here is the youngest; that fat Raichu over there eating food is prankster so be careful around her. Then we have Leafeon here."

"**Howdy!**" The grass type smiled.

"Anyway, we've got some training to do, but look out for me in the tournament. I've got a little something now that I didn't have before back in Nimbasa City. See ya later Anto." The older teen waved goodbye as he and his team left.

Anto was surprised at how versatile Sebastian's party was and he was just one of many contestants.

The young teen inhaled deeply before realizing what must be done.

[Elsewhere]

"And so the league is starting. All eyes will be watching over that area as the fate of Unova is decided there."

"**Fools. They all gather in one area, while the true beginning comes from the ruins of a once ancient tower. They know not what we do.**"

"It is in their flawed nature, a nature that was imperfect since the moment of all our births and until our ends. However, now we can finally be rid of that imperfection. And it all begins with the rebirth of both Dragons…"

[Back with Anto]

"_So… are you guys ready?_" Anto asked as he stood away from both Wes and Benga in an open field.

Wes and Benga nodded before placing their own custom made Battle AR and summoning, Ferland, Benga's Garchomp and Wes' Hydreigon to the battlefield.

"This is going to be fun!" Benga fist pumped.

"I always wanted to see how one of these worked." Wes spoke out as he armed the device ready.

Anto did the same with his own Battle AR (After much repairs) and quickly brought out Sentinel.

Soon the league will begin, and with it, some of the hardest fights he's had yet.

There was a lot riding on this, but this was what he's been waiting for since several months ago.

All three trainers pressed a button.

-SYNERGY BURST ACTIVATED-

These were the days before the tournament that changed the world forever.

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**First off, I already know about how Alder's original/canon starter Pokémon was a Volcorona via Pokémon sources. However, I decided to change that a bit to better fit Drayden and Alder's friendship since I recall that Iris in the Manga called both Drayden and Alder 'Gramps'.**

**Sorry for the short chapter. But I'm traveling to another state (and currently in New Jersey right now) than where I usually am so traveling and sightseeing has my schedule booked. But I can still try and do what needs to be done. **

**Thankfully, this was another small interlude before The battles come in. I can't wait to show you guys what's in store.**

**See ya soon.**


	45. Ep 45: Bushido

Episode 45: Fighting Spirit

"Where is Agent Domino?" Butch and Cassidy paled as their boss asked them the question they were dreading.

"Uhh, we got separated from her boss and lost contact with her. We thought she contacted you." Butch uneasily spoke out.

From his side of the screen, Giovanni seemed contemplative. "… Is that so? Bull, Cassidy, you are still on mission to capture the boy found during the Nimbasa City event, why has your progress slowed?"

"We lost track of our target for a while, but we found him recently. He's currently signed in with the Pokémon league. We'll wait for an opportune time to capture him."

"… Keep that as your top priority. However, keep on the lookout for anything else surrounding the boy. I have the distinct feeling that we aren't the only one after the corpse."

"Yes sir—wait, _corpse_?" Cassidy spoke out before noticing the word their boss used.

Giovanni spoke in a solemn tone. "I'm sending you a file that will automatically delete itself within ten minutes, read it carefully and show it to no one. I'm not one to say this, but keep an eye out and be cautious. There's something fishing going on in Unova."

With that the boss cut off his communication with Bromeo and Cassidy then sent a copy of the file he was reading.

He looked at another computer beside him that matched facial recognition software.

The boy in question had the same exact face as a dead teenager almost a year ago.

"Anthony Baker… back from the dead? If only the good Dr. Fuji could see this now." He half joked. Still, no matter how hard he stared at the pictures of both the deceased boy and the one photo taken of him during the Nimbasa City event (deformed as it was) there was just this uncanny sensation about the two photos.

He stood up from his desk and leaned in closer as he noticed something off. He stared deeply at a picture of Anthony in his casket before he was buried.

He zoomed in the picture with advance mechanics.

Most embalmers, or people who handle corpses by making them last longer, would place a specialized eye cap that helps keep the lids hydrated and closed. One would assume that Anthony's Embalmer had done the same thing towards his eyes for his eventual funeral viewing or open casket before his proper burial.

So why was there _something _that looked almost like a faint symbol of a triangle right bulging underneath Anthony's right eye?

* * *

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

It was dark as he walked, with nothing but the sound of echoing footsteps bouncing across the walls and the voice in his own mind.

The idea just hit him really. He was here. Here as in the Pokémon League, a place that brings out the best of best of trainers.

Somehow, he had bumbled his way from a hospital bed without even his real name all the way over here in the span of less than a year.

And that was not counting all of the misadventures he had in between waking up and coming here.

If he had his voice he would laugh out loud.

Honestly, he still had a lot to do even afterward, so he wasn't near the finish line yet. Heck it was more like he just reached the half way point.

"…elcome you all to the first battle of the Pokémon League! I, your MC, Guyver, am honored to be the Unova League's host for this year! Now then! On the yellow corner, we have our first trainer coming out right now! Let's give him a warm welcome everyone!"

(The young teen realized something that he really did always seem to forget every time he was on this journey.)

The light shined down on him as he exited the hall way, he was greeted by the largest stadium he's ever seen and surrounded by people all across cheering wildly.

"Let me introduce to you all one of the youngest participants of this year's league! Let's give a warm hand to, Anto!" The host, who was seen wearing a fancy red tux while wearing sparkling sunglasses also had a swept back blonde hair. He was very eye catching but he had a vibrant personality that really seemed to get people.

The crowd cheered louder for the boy as screens showed his face with his Battle AR on. The young boy politely waved at them.

"And on the Green corner, we have his opponent!" MC Gyver pointed to the opposite side as everyone moved all screens and eyes away from the boy to his opponent.

(What he forgot was really simple: for every bad thing in his life…)

Anto smiled and activated his Battle AR, allowing the data to stream in before he slowly reached for a sphere on his belt.

(There was always something fun following it.)

"May I introduce to you, the beautiful, the elegant, Ms. Hisoka Kiyomi!" The host exclaimed as out of the other side of the arena, a beautiful nineteen old girl with amber eyes and long, silky silver hair that reached her back walked out from Anto's side.

She was a very exotic looking girl and the crowd seemingly started to cheer louder. The mute sorta expected this, but he couldn't blame them. Hisoka was gorgeous and was wearing even exotic clothes. For some reason she was wearing a short Kimono with beautiful spring flower patterns while wearing a long black hair band with ornate designs and a lotus on her right side of her head. The only thing that wasn't exotic were the long brown boots she was wearing as she was walking down the battle field.

But what stood out most to everyone was the fact she was actually carrying a sheathed Katana on her side.

When she and Anto faced each other, she put out a serene smile and said, "May we have an honorable battle." She spoke politely before bowing.

She reminded him of Takezo. How peculiar.

Still, feeling a little overwhelmed, Anto bowed to show his respect to.

"Trainers, before we begin, we must explain the rules. For this first round, we will be going with the standard 3 versus 3 singles match. Only three Pokémon are allowed to be chosen, you may switch in between knockout, and the first to knock out all three of their opponent's Pokémon will win." The host explained before both participants nodded. "Are you ready? … Trainers, throw out your Pokemon!"

Anto quickly threw Ohko out into the field.

"Tight, yo! This place is really big!" The energetic Sawk looked around as he fixed his cloak.

Hisoka took out a Poké Ball before throwing it into the sky. "Come forth, Agnar!"

A Conkeldurr appeared in the air before landing hard on the ground, causing dust to kick up. However, this Conkeldurr had blue Viking like painting across his body while he wielded two giant concrete clubs instead of pillars.

"**Dah! Tis great day to battle in arena dat suit's the mighty Agnar's tastes!**" The Conkledurr put down his clubs and flexed his muscles.

Ohko's eyes widened as he looked towards the floor. "**Eating the arena? Yo, I gotta try that!**"

"_No!_"

"Now then!" The MC pointed to one of the main screens of the arena as pictures of Agnar and Ohko appeared on the screen. Suddenly, a large circle of the water element appeared. "Using new technology, the arena before our opponents will change! This symbol means that the water arena is coming up!"

The arena rumbled as out of the ground, a large Windmill started to take form as water filled most of the arena. Beside the Windmill, there looked to be some wet, moss covered rocks while some wooden boards started appearing across the water.

Ohko and Agnar stepped back as the metal beneath them turned into wood and grass.

The crowd cooed at the marvel of such ground changing technology.

"Such a wonderful treat isn't it folks! This state of the art technology is sponsored by Dimension Enterprise!"

Anto blanched at the mention of the name of .

Meanwhile in the stands, Wes, Benga, and Jamie all had their eyes widened.

"You don't think…" Jamie started.

"Jamie, knowing our luck, it is." Wes responded.

Back onto the battle field, the MC dramatically pointed to the sky, "Now then, the stage is set! The combatants are ready! Begin the battle!" He declared.

Hisoka quickly pointed. "Agnar, use Mach Punch!"

Agnar suddenly accelerated with uncanny speed towards Ohko before punching him hard with one of his large fists and knocking the blue fighting type away. Before raising his fist up in the air, revealing that he had thrown up one of his concrete clubs into the air and catching it with one free hand.

Ohko quickly got up and threw away his cloak, surprising many that he only had one arm but quickly, the one armed Sawk jumped back towards the larger evolved Pokémon and quickly spun kick one of his feet towards his face. However, Agnar lifted one of his gigantic concrete clubs to block the kick.

It didn't stop Ohko from preparing a Focus Blast before the kick connected then throwing the crushed orb right into the face of the Conkledurr with his hands trying to block his kick.

The boom resonated as dust and water flew from the impact zone. Both Ohko and Agnar were kicked out of their lock and slid back towards their trainers.

"**O! Dis good! Ya gots fight in ya boyo!**" Agnar laughed as he gripped his clubs tighter.

Ohko pointed dramatically. "**What's a boyo?!**"

"_Oh gosh, we're back to this again._" Anto silently sighed and placed a hand on his face.

Meanwhile, Hisoka was looking at her opponent as was rather surprised he hadn't made a command yet.

"Agnar, remove your wrist weights!" The exotic beauty screamed out.

The evolved Pokémon quickly tore of his large heavy looking wrist bands, revealing they had indeed been weighted with a significant volume. The fighting type was carrying that along with using those giant clubs so easily!?

"**Now we got into real fighting no!?**" Agnar flexed.

Ohko gripped his fist then threw it out towards him. "**I have no idea what you're talking about! But I can like a fight!**"

"**Come at Agnar, blue man!**" Agnar laughed jubilee as he and Ohko ran up to each other—Ohko quickly placing on his Power Band as he ran— then collided with a powerful Power Up Punch and Dual Chop.

Even with the Power Band, Ohko was overpowered and knocked back from the second contact.

Anto's mind raced. He was over powered; how could he—wait a sec that wind mill is really big with its propellers.

Huh…

The propellers…

Quickly, Anto pointed towards the Windmill Ohko was directly under. "_Ohko, grab a hold of that slow moving circling thing!_" Anto found it much faster to describe things rather than use words Ohko for sure has never heard before.

"**Ya mean the giant propeller sails? Just say so man. Yeessh, boss, I didn't know ya didn't know what those things were called.**"

… Say nothing, Anto, you have a match to win right now.

Ohko quickly got up on the slow moving blade and rode it towards the top before jumping on the cone like top of the windmill.

Quickly, Hisoka wondered what her younger opponent was doing and quickly ordered Agnar to destroy the windmill with Drain Punch.

With one mighty blow, the evolved Pokémon hit the windmill, slowing its spin and letting cracks appear from the bottom up.

However, Anto smiled and gave Ohko more silent instructions on what to do.

The one armed Sawk jumped nearby a blade sail before landing with a roll on the watery pool as the dust settled from the crashing building.

"Mach Punch! He's in the water!" The silver haired beauty cried out as Agnar quickly flew out form the smoke.

Then everyone in the entire stadium, except two, looked on surprise.

Ohko suddenly turned—then threw a large white sheet from the windmill he tore off right into the face of Agnar, blinding the bulky fighting type mid air.

"_Twin Dragons!_" Anto cried out the fusion move as Ohko ran up to the disoriented evolved Pokémon mid air and kicked him hard in the stomach before using the second half to flip kick Agnar back into the ground and kick Ohko higher up into the air.

"_Good thing fusion moves aren't affected by the move lock of choice items. Now, Focus Blast!_"

While still mid air, Ohko quickly gathered a crushed sphere and threw it right towards where he had kicked the Conkledurr. One explosion on top of another explosion before Ohko landed on the shallow water area of the arena.

As the dust settled, Anto glanced over to Hisoka, the much older teen looked surpised, but she still remained calm. He didn't know if she was just as reserved as Takezo, but he already figured that it wouldn't be that easy to knock his opponent down.

His eyes widened as he saw Hisoka point an arm out. "Use Ice Punch!"

Ice Punch? Why would she—OH CRAP! "_Ohko, get out of there!_" Unfortunately for Anto, he figured out a second too late.

Near the edge of the shallow pool, where the dust cloud was covering the field, the water quickly turned to ice then covered the pool complete with frozen water, trapping Ohko's feet.

Agnas jumped out of the smoke and quickly swung one of his giant concrete clubs at Ohko, knocking him like a baseball out of the frozen ice, and right into the rocks at the other corner of the arena.

"**Ya gots fight in ya! O'l Agnar will enjoy this battle!**" The damaged evolved Pokémon raised one of his clubs in the air as if he didn't even look tired.

Ohko walked out of the miniature mountain he was knocked into and dusted himself off. "**I feel the same way yo! But I am to win it!**"

The two grinned at each other as they went back into fighting stances.

Suddenly the pool started to shake, all over where the wooden boards were covered over shot out of the ground and water started gush out like geysers.

Hisoka saw something in them. "Agnar, freeze the pillar of water closest to you!"

The fighting type punched the water pillar closest to him, freezing it in an instant, before swinging his club to break the giant frozen water then carrying it over his shoulder as it fell over him.

"_Oh Snap._" "**Bring it!**" Anto and Ohko spoke out at the same time.

Agnar threw the seven foot tall frozen water at Ohko like a missile.

The fighting type inhaled deeply as he clenched his fist. Dragonic energy flowed through his fist before it suddenly became much more vibrant and stronger in light. He opened his eyes and quickly unleashed a punch right for the speeding ice chunk as it exploded on impact as ice chunks flew over the place.

Ohko slowly reached his one arm out before a nicely shaped ice staff fell onto his palm and he started expertly spinning it in his one hand before preventing any ice chunks from hitting him on the head. As he stopped spinning it around, electricity cackled around the make shift ice staff.

Ohko smiled as he then pointed the temporary weapon towards his opponent. Anto rolled his eyes; looks like Ohko did pick up some techniques and forms from Takezo after all that training the two did together.

Agnar chuckled heartily before beating his chest and picking up his clubs.

However, Misoka noticed something strange about the Sawk. No it wasn't the arm, despite the impairment it obviously a very well raised Pokémon. However, what got her attention was the fact that the way it moved that staff looked awfully familiar.

"**Not bad, but how ya going to do better than last time boyo?**" Agnar placed one of his giant clubs on one of his shoulders.

Ohko looked over to Anto, and the young boy pressed his Battle AR

-SYNERGY BURST ACTIVATED-

A quick swirl of rainbow lights engulfed Ohko.

Misoka placed a hand over her eyes to shield herself from the light. "Wait, Mega Evolution!?" She yelled as everyone else shielded their eyes from the light show.

As the light died down, everyone saw Ohko wrapped around in a visibly rainbow aura.

Boom!

Ohko exploded towards Agnar with renewed speed and a punch right into the stomach again—some people swore they actually saw the thick Pokémon's back actually bend like rubber from the impact—before he flew right back into the land.

The Mc suddenly pointed. "Unbelievable folks! This is quite rare! For those that do not know, allow me to explain: Synergy Burst is—"

"_Ohko don't listen to him! Synergy Burst has a time limit unlike Mega Evolution!_" Anto spoke out as Gyver droned on the history of Anto's Battle AR.

"**Oh.**" Ohko then quickly used his staff to launch himself into the air and land back on the grass to face Agnar.

Agnar came out of the smoke—he was far more durable than even Anto imagined to take on so many blows from Ohko—and quickly swung his clubs at a faster rate to hit the one armed Sawk.

"Agnar, focus on the left side!" Misoka cried out.

"**I'll do it Mistress!**" Agnar cried out as he suddenly stepped to his right and Ohko's left and swung both his clubs towards the undefended area of the one armed Sawk.

Anto knew that Ohko had an obvious hole, but they both prepared something just in case enemies abuse this fact.

Quickly, Ohko removed his Power Band over his head and kept it in his kata.

"_Stand your ground!_" The Synergy Burst was already fading so that meant Ohko had to finish this quick.

The two giant clubs swung over towards and hit the blue fighting type where he could not defend.

To everyone's surprise, and despite the huge wind and shockwave that parted the dust cloud to the Sawk's right side, Ohko held his ground.

"What?" Misoka looked on with surprise.

Anto pointed. "_Now! Counter!_"

Ohko's eyes glowed blue as well as the rest of his body as he suddenly stepped forward, crushing the earth beneath him more and then giving him a counter boosted Synergy Burst.

If people thought the shockwave from Agnar was strong, they quickly changed their mind when Ohko's blow made an entire area of the stadium feel a strong gust of wind that scattered snacks and other loose objects.

Despite that, Agnar also stood still after the attack made contact.

Ohko's rainbow aura died down as the Synergy Burst times out.

Agnar looked back up. He smiled.

Then he fell over.

"And the first knock out of the tourney goes to Anto! What an amazing display folks!" Guyver the MC shouted out as the crowds cheered wildly from the first battle of the league. On the large screen, the picture of Agnar darkened which meant he was knocked out cold.

"Your Pokémon fight well." Misoka managed to tell the boy.

Anto nodded… then realized it would be too awkward to use his telepathy on this person. Instead he just did some hand gestures to see if that would work.

"Hmm? Are those?" Hisoka tilted her head.

"Oh right! How could I forget!? Believe it or not folks, our young competitor Anto here is a mute! He can't actually speak!"

The crowd started murmuring at that.

"Still isn't that interesting how someone with a voice can make it to being here in the Pokémon league?! We all saw that splendid battle, so who knows what this surprisingly mysterious kid has up his bag of tricks!"

For some reason though, it looked like the crowd seemed more confused than anything.

Misoka looked around and sighed. "Come forth, Shin!" She quickly took out another Poké Ball and threw it into the field after recalling Agnar.

Out of the field, A Grovyle came out wearing a suit that looked like something a ninja would wear, he even had a ninja mask on.

A ninja? Hmm, Ohko isn't that good against mobile opponents yet. Takezo is my best bet, but… I have this feeling she actually has a Pokémon that has a fighting style like a samurai if she's already had a ninja and a Viking, and I kinda wanna see that.

So who do I pick?

Anto thought about it for a second before reaching for his Dusk Ball and calling back Ohko.

Sentinel appeared onto the field and instantly scowled at the ninja grass type.

"**Sorry, bad habit.**" Sentinel quickly apologized to the grass type.

The grass type raised a brow behind the mask and simply just nodded.

The ground beneath started to shake as the MC explained they were changing the field. The debris and the water seemed to shrink into the ground while a new symbol appeared on the screen that looked like a grassy plain.

The field shot up, and now trees with wooden bridges scattered across the field. The ground beneath Sentinel revealed that he was under one of these wooden bridges that lifted him up towards the trees.

He quickly looked for his opponent, but the grass type already vanished.

Anto knew that was a bad thing if even his Battle AR couldn't detect the Grovyle anywhere.

"And the Grassy plain is next! Trainers, the next match starts now!" The MC cried out as pictures of Sentinel and Shin appeared on the screen next.

Sentinel looked around, but saw no trace of his opponent.

"_Sentinel, I choose you since you have the most experience fighting ninjas._" Anto recalled how Delta Wartortle was styled after a ninja and the two have battled before many times.

His delta Pokémon turned back to him. "**You do remember I never beat him before right?**"

…

He didn't.

Sentinel heard a snapping twig from the branches and quickly looked in the opposite direction and firing.

Before Anto could ask why he did that, the ninja Grovyle jumped out of the tree and quickly escaped into another one before the Shadow Ball hit the first tree.

"_How did you know that?_" Anto blinked. That was the opposite side where the sound came from!

"**Wartortle did it too. He made me look the opposite way before attacking my blind side. Though now this guy is probably going to use more advance moves on me since he knows I won't fall for basics.**"

Crud. That did not sound… wait… that sudden breeze did not feel normal.

SNAP! SNAP!

Anto followed that sound and quickly saw that one side of the wooden bridge Sentinel was on got cut and quickly the bridge gave way for the ghost dragon type to fall down.

Sentinel regained his balance on his feet as he landed back on the grass before diving into the shadows of the tree.

"Huh. Well folks it looks like this battle is going to be like hide and seek. Anto's strange ghost type and Misoka's Groyvle are hidden in the arena and I don't think they can be easily spotted."

It was at that instant, one of the trees froze over and the shattered into tiny pieces. Everyone looked over towards that tree before on another side of the arena, then another tree froze over and shattered.

The younger boy wondered what Sentinel was doing.

A few more seconds passed as more and more trees started getting frozen over and shattered.

Eventually, the field was frozen over before Shin jumped out into the open, quickly followed by Sentinel trying to hit him with Shadow Claw.

The delta Pokémon followed through with the attack to hit—a doll?

"_Sentinel that's Substitute!_" The boy panicked as the doll Pokémon was split into pieces by the Torren Pokémon's claws.

"**I was sure I got him this time!**" Sentinel snarled as he looked around. His trainer then panicked as he saw the claw that Sentinel used to his the doll.

Leaves started sprouting out of the boney claw of Sentinel, making the dual type look at his arm strangely. "**This looks familiar.**"

"_Sen, it's Leech Seed! Kill it quickly with a soft frost breath on your arm!_" The cold air should freeze it from forming completely.

Suddenly, the iced ground beneath the skeleton cracked before Shin shot up, uppercutting the delta into the sky before smacking him down with a Leaf Blade.

Sentinel bounced on the ice before forcing himself to stop with his claws and talons. However that delay made all of the sprouts spread around him and trap him in leech seed.

Anto quickly noticed the Grovyle dive back in to the ground.

"_He's using Dig! Follow him into the ground with Shadow Sneak!_" Sentinel quickl faded into the shadows and went in after the evolved Hoenn starter.

Again a few seconds passed with nothing happening.

"Well ladies and gentlemen this definitely is one of the strangest battles I've never seen!" The MC admitted simply because most of the action was between these two very stealthy Pokémon.

Suddenly, the ground beneath the ice started shaking…cracking… and purple light shined that only got brighter and brighter with the ice getting pushed upward—

Everyone shielded their eyes as chunks of earth and ice flew into the air with Misoka's Groyvle, damaged from being blown out of the ground.

Sentinel, still covered in Leech Seeds, jumped on chunks of earth to get to Shin faster with Dragon Claws set ablaze.

The Torren Delta caught up and made an attempt to slash his opponent.

But it was too slow for Shin and he quickly used Substitute to avoid—

"**Got—**" Sentinel used Specter Step to teleport right behind Shin when the grass type fled just before his attack connected with the substitute. "**—YOU!**" He followed through with his swipe as much as he could to hit the evolved Pokémon into the ground.

Shin's impact to the cold frozen ground did not look in anyway comfortable, especially being hit with that much force and being sent falling that fast.

Sentinel Landed on the ground as most of the debris stopped falling. "**Yep. I still hate ninjas.**"

The leaves all around him started to glow, signaling that Sentinel's energy was being sapped.

Slowly but surely, Shin rose up from the dust. He was quivering from the damage but still held on for his seeds to work their magic.

He ignited his Leaf Blades one more time, but this time they had a much stronger glow and longer reach. His Overgrown Ability had activated.

Sentinel looked back at his seeds. If this went any longer, all the damage he would have done would have been for nothing.

He set his claws ablaze and Specter Stepped right in front of the Grovyle. However, this time, the grass ninja was waiting for it.

The two unleashed their attacks…

…

…

Thud!

Shin fell to his knees after the final slash between the two, he removed his mask and gasped for breath as he looked behind him to Sentinel's knocked over figure.

"And Anto's Pokémon is now down! So far, both combatants have shown amazing skill from both of their Pokémon! But look out folks, anyone can win this match!"

Anto recalled Sentinel then he heard the symbol change as the arena started to disappear. It amazed him how technologically advanced the field was to fix and simulate any area so far. But a small part of his brain was worried since this was made by the same people who have been after him all throughout his journey.

Let's hope he doesn't have to cross that bridge when he gets there. Team Plasma came first.

Anto threw out his next Pokémon, Takezo, his friend that started it all.

Misoka and her Grovyle eyed the normal type strangely.

"Oh!? It seems like Anto has his own themed Pokémon as well! A sword user! Who knew such a little guy could wield cute blades?" The MC explained before the next arena was displayed.

This time, and earth symbol appeared and then it looked liked the field turned into some mining valley with huge rock walls surrounding the participants. There were metal pillars, beams and some scattered mining equipment nearby.

The battle was called to begin once more between Takezo and Shin.

Shin slowly moved around his new opponent, eyeing him carefully as Takezo continued to stare down his opponent.

He suddenly leapt at Takezo with his empowered Leaf Blades ready to strike as Takezo quickly placed a hand on one of his blades. However, it looked like the Patrat wasn't going to draw his blade even as the blade came closer.

Takezo gripped his blade tight then swung his blade. Shin noticed this small action immediately mid-attack and acted quickly.

A sudden puff of smoke appeared before Groyvle, replacing himself with a Substitute doll the split second before the attack connected.

But the attack never connected…

The doll fell harmlessly into the ground while Takezo froze his blade a few centimeters before hitting the doll.

Takezo turned around towards a pillar and pointed one of his palms. A small spark of electricity danced on his hands before a small bolt of electricity shout out and hit the metal beam, making Shin jump out of hiding and exposing himself back into view.

The Samurai put down his blade and moved his body to face the now sweating Shin.

He then bolted right for the evolved grass type with his wooden blade ready. The Ninja used Dig to vanish into the ground, yet it didn't stop Takezo in the slightest. The normal type activated Detect, his eyes glowing vibrant blue as he suddenly sidestepped towards the right and avoided the ground right in front of him cracking up.

Shin panicked as he saw his attack miss and leave himself exposed mid air as Takezo jumped…

Blam!

…And knocked the opposing ninja into the wall.

From the fight with Sentinel, Shin fainted from the hit of the smaller Pokémon.

The crowd cheered as this next battle ended.

Misoka stared in disbelief at the Patrat. She quickly recalled her Grovyle and looked over towards Anto. "How does your Patrat know Kenjutsu?"

Anto raised his brow before looking towards Takezo.

"**Kenjutsu is a study of martial combat.**" He elaborated.

Not knowing how to answer her, all Anto did was shrug his shoulders to her.

Misoka looked shocked before shaking her head. "You don't know? But your Pokémon, he moves just like… I digress. Apologizes." She suddenly stopped as she picked up her next Pokémon after recalling Shin. "Come forth, Musashi!"

Out of this Poké Ball, a Farfetch'd wearing a straw hat appeared onto the field with her leek on top of her shoulder and the hat tilted down to prevent anyone from seeing her eyes.

Takezo repositioned himself back towards Anto as the field started changing again.

"Oh wow folks! I never thought I would see something like this! This looks straight out of an old Samurai movie! … And it looks like the next stage is the normal stage!" The MC cried out as the field started to change.

The filed looked more like a standard battlefield. Except there were two large flying platforms nearby both sides where the trainers currently were.

The MC then signaled the beginning of this next round between Takezo and this female Farfetch'd.

Takezo raised his blade over his head. Musashi lowered her leek blade beneath and tucked under her wing.

The two stared at each other for a second like statues, not moving in the slightest and almost looking like they didn't realize they were being watched by over millions of people.

Anto's Pokémon moved first, Takezo bolted from his spot like a bullet with his sword drawn.

It was then a loud musical clashing noise echoed throughout the arena. Both sword users were locking blades against each other.

Takezo quickly eyed her style of sword usage. "**Iaijutsu?**" The small samurai showed surprise as he eyed her stance.

"**Perceptive, sir.**" She admitted as she pushed the blade forward against her opponent. "**You obviously are well versed in Swordplay.**"

"**I did not expect to meet another bushido user.**" An amused smile spread slowly on Takezo's face.

Musashi raised her straw hat, returning a smirk towards her opponent. "**Oh? How do I know ****you**** are not a true sword user?**"

She then suddenly hit his blade up and quickly made a horizontal slash that Takezo quickly blocked with his sword. The instant Takezo parried the blade, he went on the offensive with his own slash towards Musashi, only for her to back flip away from Takezo.

And that move all happened within less than three seconds.

Takezo went on the offensive as Musashi countered all of his blows in quick session. The sounds of weapons clashing almost became quick and rhythmic like face paced music.

Musashi jumped into the air then bit her leek in her mouth as she started flying towards one of the large platforms. Takezo sped after her. Instead of landing on one of the platforms, Musashi folded her wings, dove, and flipped over as she landed on the platform with a slide, using the momentum to grab her blade as Takezo jumped on the platform after her.

This time, Musashi attacked Takezo as he landed, but in one instant, a flurry of petals exploded on the small area, blinding all outsiders which was quickly followed by several rapid sounds of clashing before Takezo was thrown out of the platform.

The normal type regained momentum mid air and landed on his feet as he slid on the ground to stop the throwing momentum.

As he landed, Takezo looked back up as Musashi looked at him down from on top of the platform. Takezo felt drained for a reason as he stood back up.

"_Takezo that was Feather Dance! Your attack has been cut! Use Swords Dance to repair it!_"

He did so but then he noticed something quickly: Musashi was also using Swords Dance.

Takezo's trainer had his eyes wide open. "_Takezo, keep up with her, use Swords Dance!_"

Takezo was about to do that until Musashi flew down on him with renewed vigor in another crowd pleasing sword duel. This time, Musashi knocked away his wooden blade at the end.

Farfetch'd pulled her blade back before stabbing forward. Takezo rolled away then stepped back before using Swords Dance and using the energy blades. The opposing flying type smirked before another explosion of feathers happened.

In that instant, many things happened: Takezo barely saw her move behind her feathers; Musashi went into another sword stance; and the energy swords Takezo was wielding instantly faded.

Within the storm of feathers, Musashi kept trying to hit Takezo, but the normal type dodged deftly thanks to the use of Detect. However, the fighting move didn't last as Musashi scored a clean hit into Takezo's stomach with her blunt end, knocking him into the middle of the field.

Anto sweat dropped. He never expected Takezo to get out skilled of all people—and he did his best not to underestimate the League darn it! "_Takezo! I have the Synergy Burst charged up again, but I don't know when to use it!_"

His normal type paused for a second before turning back towards his trainer. "**Use it now!**"

"_Wait what?!_" Anto looked confused.

Takezo eyed his opponent who was stalking over towards him while performing another Swords Dance, making this her third power up and her strikes far more damaging.

"**Trust me!**" The Samurai declared as turned towards his opponent.

As the Rainbow Aura started to wrap around him, Musashi pounced on her opponent.

A small voice popped into his head as time slowed down almost to a complete stop. (Alright, little one, today's lesson is my favorite: I'm going to teach you the technique that scored me my wife! … Wait, I don't think Pokémon can impress their opposite gender with—getting out of topic, but the bottom line with this stance is that it is surprisingly helpful against those that practice Iaido and-slash-or Iaijutsu.)

Time moved again as Musashi cut through the rainbow Aura, but then Takezo clasped his hands and caught her super powered leek. He quickly stepped closer to her and grabbed her shoulder.

Musashi looked up to her opponent to see a smirk.

"**You halted my attack power, yet you neglected my Special.**"

She was shocked…

…Mostly because Takezo used Thunderbolt at such a close range with the empowered Synergy Burst.

As Musashi got blasted off, she regained her conscious mid air and caught her blade before looking back towards Takezo, adding his own Swords Dance to the Synergy Burst Power up.

"Musashi, end it now before he can get you!" Misoka cried out. "Use Retaliate!"

The Flying type performed another Swords Dance before diving into towards Takezo.

Takezo jumped and wielded his Thunder Katana on his other hand. When the two clashed, an explosion of feathers and light shined through the filled as everyone averted their eyes once more.

…

The dust settled down…

And…

"OH. MY. ARCEUS! Folks, we just had a DRAW! Both Pokémon are down! But Anto is the only one with a usable Pokémon left, so our first league winner is Anto!" MC Guyver cried out as the stadium roared with applause.

Anto quickly ran up to his Pokémon, who woke up and had another memory surface…

(So when you performed this technique, you gained a spouse?)

(Well sorta, I beat her with it, but then afterward she trained like crazy to counter that move. Still! It's always good to keep new moves.)

Despite being injured, Takezo was wondering how on earth did his former teacher become such a competent sword user with a personality like that?

The young winner walked up towards Takezo and then kneeled down to him. "_So, you can catch blades with your bare hands now huh?_"

"**And if I was to mention that was my very first time trying that?**" Takezo admitted with an honest smile?

"… _Say what?…_"

"That was a truly impressive battle." Anto and Takezo looked up to see Misoka offering him a hand.

The younger boy took it and shook hands with her, but for some reason she looked a little sad.

"I am… a little disheartened that I was defeated so soon. However, I do find relief that it was from a worthy battler."

The young boy nodded before bowing respectfully, Takezo did as well.

"Let's give a warm hand for our participants!" MC Guyver declared as the crowd cheered wildly.

Still, why did Misoka look worried to Anto?

* * *

[Later on]

Anto had just received his Pokémon back when he heard a voice behind him.

"That was some awesome battling, Anto!"

He recognized that voice. Quickly, the amnesiac turned around to see someone he wasn't expecting.

"_Black!? But how!? I thought the League started without you! I didn't see your name anywhere among the 31 contestants!_"

The black haired boy smiled. "That's 32 contestants now. There was a loop hole that allowed me enter the second before your battle started. I had to beat Drayden before that though. But here we are, the Pokémon League!" He sounded excited.

"_Wait, Black, what about the gym leaders? Team Plasma? What happened to you? And why did Drayden and Brycen tell me about you being Reshiram's chosen?_"

The cap wearing boy laughed. "Well that's a long story… but wait a sec! Even what I went through is **nothing** to what you went through! You met your family?! You're an Immortal!?"

Anto looked around, seeing people staring at Black strangely before the mute teen pushed him towards a more secluded area outside the Pokémon League Tournament.

The two compared stories. Apparently, Black went through some identity crisis when his Munna, Musha, quote-on-quote 'abandoned' him when in reality he was just looking for a way to get more power and evolved into a Musharna. There was also him battling with N—

"By the way, Anto, N was asking me why you were dressed like a girl when he met you at The Iccirus City Ruins?" Black stopped explaining briefly.

…

"_Tell me your story first before I tell you mine._"

—before he got trounced and woke up in a strange place called Entralink where he was spoken to by some weird voice coming from a twisted tree.

"_Are you sure that __**I**__ have the weirder story?_"

"Do you see me dressing up as a girl?"

"_Don't make me pitch that idea to White, Mr. I'm-Still-In-Debt-To-Her._"

Eventually White, with the help of Summer and Ben—who by the way thought they found a lead to their missing friends and dropped him and White back here before going back—they brought Black to the League where Black abused one loophole that he could still enter into the league since it hadn't 'officially' started yet, which means he was going to use a loop hole.

"So here I am. Drayden pulled some strings and got me into the last fight of the first rounds." Black finally finished.

"_But wait, now that both of us are here, who's going to face N and tell him to stop… whatever bad thing he was going to do? I'm sorry but this was more of your thing since I was still being chased around by assassins._" Anto admitted.

"He's trying to separate Pokémon and People, Anto!" Black declared.

"_He is!?_" The other teen blanched in shock. "_All the times I met him I thought he was just trying to make Team Plasma some deep Theatrical club with all his poetic words!_"

[Elsewhere.]

"Achoo!"

"Bless you, my lord." Rood quickly said to N.

[Back with the two.]

"What kind of theater freak needs the power of **Zekrom **to handle a play!?" Black yelled.

"_I dunno,_ _Star power? I had a lot on my mind at the time! … And I was shot in the head!_" The boy pointed to where the bullet wound was supposed to be, but not even a trace of it was left.

Black put a hand on this face. "See—this is why you're the strange one between the two of us: our conversations goes to places even I don't expect! And **I'm** the one that usually does this for me friends! Do you know how weird it is to have a crazy friend be the sane one here?"

"_I am sane! You're the one who yells at the highest points of places just to renew a promise?! How the bloody freak does that work!?_"

If this was a cartoon, Black would have had a vein pop on his forehead for the insult to his daily promise. "Oo! It's on now! You're going down, you Crossdressing Mute!"

"_Bright it on, Forever in Debt!_"

You could probably tell this was serious (And amazingly stupid) when both boys threw away their jackets before tackling one another.

To the passerby in this secluded area, she thought she heard grunting and panting coming from behind a few bushes.

Imagine her surprise when she saw two, dirty, stripping, teen age boys on top of each other with no one around to see them?

Black and Anto stopped when they looked over to see someone was watching them?

"I umm… pray thee am not interrupting something?" Misoka had a red face as she asked.

"NO!" Black (and Anto) yelled and quickly got out of each other's way like they were infected with a transferable fatal disease.

"Hey wait, aren't you Misoka?" Black pointed to the Samurai trainer. "What are you doing here?"

Instead of her returning the question, she looked sad and worried as her expression changed grimly.

"Well, I—"

"There you are, Kiyomi!"

Black, Hisoka, and Anto looked over towards the cocky voice.

It was at this instant, Anto started to realize this was not even going to be a normal tournament, wasn't it?

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**Hey guys, trying something different this time. Sorry for the lateness in this one. Had trouble with the fights.**

**Also if there area errors, I sorta… was in a hurry. Will fix later. **

**So this league is off to a spanking new start, but it seems like there's a little more drama going on.**

**Is Black joining in on Anto's Harem!? (NO.) (And I have nothing against Gays! Do not misinterpret! This is supposed to be a joke! And not even a good one!) (Oh and more importantly, Anto DOES NOT have a Harem to begin with.)**

**Anywho, this league is going to be shorter since it follows somewhat the old Black and White Manga where there were not that many people that made it to the league in the manga, and here it's actually a lot compared to that like 3 or 4 times more?**

**I hope you like how I've taken things so far. I always worry that action is hard to write in box when TV and movies can do it a lot better with actual visuals, music, and effects. So when it comes to text, I know it should be different, but what I envision is mostly visual and hard to put down in words in such a entertaining way.**

**Next time… I'll keep it a secret, but here's a little extra I wrote that I thought was a shame to delete.**

[Anto stands by the fact his mornings suck]

Anto had this feeling that Jamie was still mad at him for some reason he just could not explain.

As the four of them were eating breakfast, Jamie didn't even look at him once the entire time nor did she say anything the entire time.

In fact, Anto didn't even notice Jamie leaving from across the booth and leaving him with Wes and Benga from finishing her food quickly.

The mute's two friends looked over to the amnesiac.

"You messed up." They both said at the same time.

"_What the freaking heck is everyone talking about!? I have no idea what's with her ever since she met with Tiana and Bianca!_"

Wes and even Benga gave Anto a look. The brown eyed boy raised his brow and wondered why they were both looking at him like that.

…

"_Oh. My. Arceus._" If the Amnesiac was drinking, he would have done a spit take.

Instead he banged his head on the table. "_S-She likes me!?_ _Wait a sec they all like me!?_"

It was somewhat weird for Anto to be 'speaking' despite his head facing the table, but by now Wes and Benga were both used to this by now.

"Anto, you're freaking everyone out that isn't to having another voice in their head." Wes spoke out as he motioned to everyone in the vicinity looking around looking spooked.

Currently, they were all out with their Pokémon in one of the outdoor courtyards. Thankfully there weren't that many people.

Back with young teen whose face was beet red and still planted face first into the desk, "_Oh Arceus, I have more than one girl that likes me!? And I didn't even notice!? Have I become one of those oblivious, idiot main male characters they show in poorly written but rather well animated cartoons!?_"

"Well, you figured it out yourself, so you're not oblivious." The fact Wes didn't comment on the idiot part made it obvious that he wasn't going to deny that part.

"I thought she was just crushing on you." Benga played with his fork on his eggs. "I mean from the sound of it, I bet all three girls were crushing on you and then they found out that there were two other girls who were close to you that you never mentioned."

Anto planted his face into the table again. His two male friends held their drinks from spilling form the impact.

The black haired teen raised his head again. This time a noticeable red spot was appearing on his forehead. "_I thought trying to beat the league was going to be tough, but romantic drama!? How on earth am I going to deal with that!?_"

The two teens shrugged.

The mute sighed and looked back at his meal, it was then he noticed something that hadn't occurred to him in quite a while. "_Ahh that reminds me, where exactly does 'Mamoswine Bacon' actually come from? We're not actually eating Mamoswine, are we?_"

The other two boys froze.

"You know, I never thought of that." Benga asked.

"_Wait, __do__ we eat Pokémon?_" Anto asked before he saw Benga and Wes staring at him.

All three of them turned to all of their Pokémon on the side of their outdoor table who were staring right back at them.

"**I no longer feel hungry.**" Takezo pushed his food away.

"**You know what this problem needs!?**" Kryx floated up with glowing eyes. "**Science! I shall find the answer to this problem!**"

She teleported away excitedly.

She came back a second later like a zombie.

"_Kryx?_" Anto raised his brow.

"**I learned things. Things I must never reveal to the public.**" She droned with an eerie lifeless tone.

Everyone looked towards the human food. "Wait, so does this mean—"

"**That question cannot be denied nor validated.**" The usually energetic and peppy scientist droned on like some lifeless machine.

…

The black haired teen blinked several times before finally stating, "_This is an awkward breakfast._"

Everyone agreed to that.


	46. EP 46: Unexpected Valor

Episode 46: Proving your worth

* * *

Black and Anto stared as a man with similar clothing style to Misoka stepped out of the trees.

Out walked another man, around his twenties with his green hair and bangs covering his left eye.

"Kiyomi, so it looks like you lost against a kid." There was a cocky tune in his voice as he folded his arms.

"Haruto Izuru…" The silver haired girl paused. "W-What are you doing here?"

The green haired man laughed. "What? Don't tell me you forgot our agreement?"

Misoka tensed while Black and Anto seemed confused.

Haruto gave off a smirk. "We were supposed to battle in the league to prove which dojo was better. And I recall that if I won, you would surrender your family dojo to us. That was the agreement, wasn't it?"

"The agreement was that we had to battle for it!" Misoka screamed.

"But we can't now, because you're no longer in the tournament." Haruto pointed at her directly. "And since you obviously can't fulfill your part of the bargain, your family dojo is forfeit."

"You bet your family dojo?" Black asked in shock.

"It is a very long story." Misoka turned back to the two boys. She looked at Anto and then looked down. "I had… underestimated the other trainers severely."

"Your family has obviously grown weak, Kiyomi. To lose to a child of all things."

Anto glared; unfortunately he was ignored like he wasn't even there.

"Hooooolllllddddd it!"

All four of them turned in surprise of the voice. There was a tall, confident woman with bright gold eyes, dark brown short, spiky hair and a very dark tan wearing a thick white coat with red Poké Ball designs and very tight leg pants screamed out with her hands pushing both sides.

Misoka and Black looked surprised, which made Anto surprised because it seemed like Black recognized that woman.

"Candela Onee—I mean, Candela? What are you doing here!?" Misoka cried out in shock before saying something else.

"Wait, Candela!?" Black looked at the newcomer and back at the silver haired girl back and forth. "As in, Candela, leader of Team Valor: a growing Pokémon community dedicated into learning about Pokémon through strength!? That same Candela that is said to be one of the three trainers that are direct assistants to Professor Willow and are rumored to each have a legendary Pokémon!?"

Candela grinned at Black. "Well that's a mouthful. I think you and Blanche might get along if you like researching." Her grin went down as she turned to Haruto and pointed to him nonchalantly. "Anywho, the reason I came here was to put a hold on your little plan to take over the Kiyomi Dojo."

"You have no say on this!" Haruto exclaimed. "She lost before her battle even began, which is the same thing as forfeiting!"

Misoka looked down in shame while Black was really started to get annoyed by this Haruto guy. However, Candela still seemed calm. In fact, she was smiling again.

"Spending time with the world's greatest bookworm has rubbed off on me, so I took a look at the contract you made." She put her hand near her mouth and cleared her throat. "A student of the Lotus Dojo, Misoka's family Dojo, will face a student from the Steel Arcanine, Seaweed Head over here…" She motioned to Haruto who glared while Black and Anto held in a chuckle. She then continued on. "… Within this Year's Unova League. Whoever wins between them will determine the fate of the Lotus Dojo."

"Yes! And now that Misoka has lost, she is unable to fulfill that contract!" Haruto folded his arms.

Candela folded her own arms, still not losing her smile. "Hold on there, Seaweed Head, _you_ still haven't had your battle yet. How do we know you won't lose as well? Secondly, the contract is still fair game."

"What are you talking about?" Haruto demanded. "Misoka lost! And I won't make that mistake for sure!"

"What I'm trying to say that there's another Student of the Lotus Dojo that's still in the league and can still represent Misoka's Dojo." Candela stated, surprising the four of them. "And best of all, he's already on the second round."

"What!? There's another student!?" Haruto exclaimed.

"There's another student!?" Even Misoka was surprised.

Candella pointed her hand to the sky… then right down to Anto?

"_**What!?**_" Everyone cried out.

"He's not a student! I've never seen him in the dojo!" Haruto exclaimed while Misoka had to begrudgingly agree.

"The thing about Contracts is that you shouldn't make it too vague." Candella commented to herself before explaining out loud. "We all saw that last battle didn't we? That kid's Patrat moved exactly like one of the sword users just like in the Lotus Dojo, I should know, I've studied there for years before becoming the official leader of Team Valor."

Anto tilted his head. Takezo moved just like someone from that Dojo? Well that does explain why the sword fight looked similar… wait but what are the chances that Takezo is connected to Misoka's Dojo? He always said he trained alone with an old man.

… What was his previous teacher's name?

"What are you suggesting!?" Haruto screamed. "That some random Patrat with a blade is a student of the Lotus Dojo!? They're the most common Pokémon in Unova with nothing special besides being an extra pair of eyes at night!"

"Candela! My grandmother never thought a Patrat! I'm sure!" Misoka declared.

Hold up—that got gears cranking on Anto's head.

"_Wait. Did you say, grand__mother__?_"

Everyone but Black turned to Anto in surprise. The mute sighed before briefly explaining again that he was technically a psychic and communicated speech through telepathy at times.

Despite their reactions, the amnesiac pressed on for Misoka to confirm she learned how to fight from her grandmother to which she did admit to being taught by her a grandmother, a female.

The mute's Patrat always mentioned a male teach though.

Anto took out his Poké Ball and brought out Takezo.

"_Takezo, out of curiosity, do you know the name of your first master?_"

"**Ishimaru Kiyomi, why do you ask?**" Takezo answered as Anto's eyes widened in shock. Takezo didn't recognize Misoka's name before because he was never there whenever it was announced! Not to mention on the fact they were so focused on the battle at the time, he probably didn't take a good look at the guy's granddaughter!

Anto turned to Misoka uneasily. "_Umm, does the name, 'Ishimaru Kiyomi'_, _mean anything?_"

The silver haired girl, even Haruto, flinched in surprise. "How do you know my grandfather's name!? He left when I was young because he didn't want to burden us with his Alzheimer's…"

"_Well uhh… Takezo here trained under him._" Anto motioned to his Patrat who turned and seemingly stared at Misoka.

Candela looked as shocked, but she also seemed to be happy. "I knew that fighting style was familiar. I saw master Ishimaru fight a few times when I was still a rookie in his dojo. He had the same grace and skill your Patrat showed when he wielded that blade," She then turned towards Haruto. "Well then it's decided, unless you also lose on the first round, you have to beat Anto here to get the Dojo."

"_Wait what?_" Anto turned to the red themed woman suddenly forcing him into an agreement he did not sign up for.

"You think some nobody can defeat me? Ha! Fine then, not only will my family get the dojo, but I can completely humiliate you Mioska in front of all of Unova by winning the league and beating that child!" He huffed as he walked away.

"What a jerk! He thinks he's going to win!?" To Anto, Black was getting angry for the wrong reasons.

"Onee-san, how did you know about Anto's Pokémon?" Misoka asked.

"I recognizing fights pretty well. He moved way too skillfully to be a coincidence. Though I did have to admit I was going on a feeling. Spark would be proud." Candela offhandedly mentioned before looking towards Anto. "So uh yeah. Mind helping out my friend?"

The black haired boy simply stared. "_Why do you ask me now that I have no choice whatsoever?_"

The leader of Team Valor scoffed. "No way I'm letting that bigot and his family going to trample over my friend's dojo. I trained there as a kid and honestly? Master Ishi might not have been the most competent of teachers, but I strangely learned the most from him." She reminisced fondly.

"Grandfather was never good at actually teaching. Grandmother always reprimanded him for not taking things seriously." Misoka sighed.

It was around this time she turned towards Takezo, who was still staring at her. "Yes little one? You have been staring at me for a while."

"**You have the same eyes as him.**" Takezo answered out in a human language, surprising even Black.

Everyone once more seemed surprised until Anto had to explain again he had the power to translate between the two languages.

"OK you have to meet Blanche and Spark one day." Cadela exclaimed. "They'll have field day with you."

But Misoka looked back to Takezo. "So it is true, you must be the egg my grandfather took with him before he left."

"**He never told me about you or your family. Later on I just assumed that he didn't want to talk about it.**" The Patrat answered.

Misoka sighed before looking towards Anto. "I'm sorry you got caught up in this mess."

"_Ehh, I've been through worse._" Anto dismissed. By now he should have been used to stuff like this.

A sudden beeping noise made everyone turn to Black.

"Oh." Black stated as he looked at his Xtransciever.

"What is it?" Candela wondered out loud.

"My match is coming soon! Hey Anto, why not check it out? I know you haven't seen my Pokémon yet." The teen admitted.

Anto was curious and easily agreed. Black had a victorious smirk on him. "I have a feeling you should know who you're facing against, so don't you dare lose to that seaweed head!"

"_You know there is the chance I probably am not going to fight him, right?_"

Black raised a brow.

"… _Don't give me that look. It's statistically improbable for that to happen!_"

"Actually, one out of sixteen isn't that improbable." Black pointed.

* * *

[Meanwhile…]

He saw the battle. His Pokémon were very impressive for being so strange. However that didn't change the fact that he was far away from where he was.

He needed to get to him soon. He had a feeling that if he waited any longer, he might miss his chance to get that kid and ask for his help.

[Later…]

* * *

The stadium roared battle after battle, and right now it was the last battle of the preliminaries.

"Helloooo everyone! We have one of the last matches of the day! We have our contestant in the red corner, Black! One of youngest and newest contestants here in the Pokémon League!"

"What does he mean by that?" Benga asked as he turned towards the group, which had grown quite a bit and was now consisting of Misoka, Candela, White, Wes, Jamie, Bianca, Anto, and Tiana.

"Oh he means newcomers. People in their first league tournament are referred to as 'new contestants' since usually there are other people who have been in other leagues or the previous leagues before. I think Anto also was briefly introduced before he had his first match." Tiana explained.

"Come to think of it, there are a lot of older people here aren't there?" Jamie thought out loud.

"Yeah, I checked. Including that Bianca, Anto, and Black kid, there are only four newcomers for this tournament. There might have been more if the date was pushed two weeks earlier." Candela noted.

It was then that the Mc turned over towards the blue corner. "And his opponent, with the age of 23, Carl Forray!"

A blonde man with short hair and green eyes wearing something like a fisherman's clothing except the hat stepped into the side.

"Sup kid." Carl waved. "Good luck."

"Thanks, but I'm here to win!" black declared as he got a Poké ball ready.

Carl chuckled. "Funny. Last time I checked, I was planning on beating you and getting into the next round." He took out a Lure Ball

"It seems our contestants are rip and raring to go! Remember, the 3 versus 3 rule is still in effect! So trainers, on your mark, get set… go!" Guyver cried out as Black and Carl threw out their Pokémon.

Right off the bat, Carl brought out Rapidash as Black brought out a Galvantula.

"Wait, but you had a Lure Ball!" Black cried out. That Poké Ball was commonly used to bring out water Pokémon since it was made to catch water Pokémon easier.

Carl calmly smiled. "It's to trick sharper people into choosing a different type. Come on kid, this is the big leagues. I'm sure you've heard of mind games before."

Black gritted his teeth as the field set off around them. The symbol on the screen was electric and suddenly magnetic platforms and conveyer belts filled the whole field.

The match was on and Carl was suddenly crying out to his Rapidash to use Flame Wheel.

Black did not expect the fire type to run at him even faster than he had expected and quickly told his Galvantula, Tula, to web into one of the platforms and barely get away from the fast moving Rapidash.

"How did that Rapidash move so fast?" White asked as they all stared at the battle field.

"I think that fire type used Agility." Wes spoke out.

"Good, I wasn't the only one to notice it," Candela commented. "That's a well raised Rapidash to use set up moves very quickly."

Quickly, Rapidash fired a large spread Heatwave, at the platform Tula was on. Seeing no way out, Black ordered Tula hide behind the platform.

"That was a bad move." Candela commented, making everyone but Wes look at her.

As the attack died down, the platform Galvantula was on started to heat up and slowly melt. Not only that, but the metal platform crashed into the ground, making Tula flop into the ground in shock.

"So those were held up by magnets." The Orreian teen commented before briefly explaining that if you heat up magnets, they start to lose their magnetic field—which happened right now with Rapidash heating up one of the magnetic platforms to the point it couldn't hold itself up anymore.

Things were looking bad for Black. But there was still one thing about the field he could use.

Carl told his Rapidash to use another Heatwave while Black told his Pokémon to jump to the right.

The bug electric type quickly hopped and found himself on a conveyor belt that quickly got him out of the range of that attack.

Black ordered his Pokémon to get behind several rows of conveyor belts then fire Electro Ball at his opponent. However, the Rapidash was boosted enough to avoid the attack.

Rapidash shot another Heatwave but Tula launched another Electro Ball in retaliation.

However, something small shot out of the smoke and hit Rapidash on her neck.

Suddenly, the Rapidash was shocked by several hundred volts of electricity. Quickly, Carl recognized the string as web and ordered his fire type to flare up and melt the web off her.

As the smoke died down, Black's Galvantula was back on top of one of the magnets platforms, but this time he had webbed half a dozen together.

Black knew he had a type disadvantage, but that wouldn't stop him from this battle. He trained his Galvantula to weave web as quick as possible since that's what made their specific species so powerful in the first place.

It was tricky, but Tula had launched a web right after the Electro Ball since Black knew the attacks would cancel each other out. It let him use Electro Web to finally score a hit, but Carl was obviously disciplined enough to react quickly.

The next move surprised Black as Rapidash was ordered to move right towards him with another Flame Wheel. There was the problem that between Rapidash and the electric Pokémon, there were at least half a dozen conveyor belts moving quickly in different directions. The footing of the horse Pokémon would be horrible in a straight charge, which was why Black had ordered his Pokémon to retreat behind them so the footing would be horrible.

It was a good plan.

It just wasn't good enough at this stage of the game.

Rapidash wasn't tripping over the different moving conveyor belts; she was jumping on them. She was gracefully moving with the fast moving conveyor belts and now forming a form of zigzag pattern towards the bug type.

Black started to sweat and quickly ordered his Galvantula to fire Electro Ball in a rapid fire. However, the new pattern was far more unpredictable for his electric type to pin down. Hastily, the teen told Galvantula to quickly use his web to move away from the platform as it was rammed through by Rapidash.

The strange thing was that because that platform was connected to others by web, the fire spread out into the other nearby platforms as well. The heat weakened the magnetic platforms and some started falling into the conveyor belts patterned on the field.

Everyone in the audience was wondering why Black would have his Pokémon web up all the platforms together? He was running out of places to run. Yet from the crowd, Anto was silently staring at what the melting metal was doing where they all fell.

Galvantula moved to an area that was behind more conveyer belts but for some reason it was more towards the area where his web of platforms fell and burned.

Rapidash fired another Heat Wave while mid air, actually catching the bug type in flames as fired seemed to cover the spider's body. The action caught Black off guard, as Carl ordered his Pokémon to finish it all with Flare Blitz.

It was then something strange happened as Rapidash made her way towards the burning Pokémon.

When she jumped on one of the conveyor belts, one of her feet dug into the rubber.

"What?!" Carl screamed out.

"Now, Galvantula, hit Rapidash with your best Electro Ball!" Black quickly cried as the spider launched a much bigger electrical sphere at the still but moving fire type.

The attack exploded and out of the dust, Rapidash was knocked out of the now broken conveyor belt and was unconscious.

"How did that happen?" Carl asked as he recalled Rapidash and the field started to fix itself back to normal.

"Did you think only the magnets would be affect by heat?" Carl looked over to Black. "If rubber melts, it becomes sticky and liquid like. I had an idea that I could pin down you Rapidash in the melted rubber since I've seen you melt the webs quickly, but I knew that I didn't have long to dodge all those fire attacks you were throwing. It's why I had Tula web all those platforms so they would catch on fire faster and fall on rubber conveyor belts to speed up their heating. Then all I had to do was wait until you got stuck on one and finish you off."

"Well, I know someone who would fit perfectly in my friend's Team Mystic." Candela commented from the crowd.

Carl laughed. "So you're telling me, I'm facing off a kid genius. Swell!" He took out a Net Ball and threw it out into the air.

The next Pokémon to come out was an Espeon.

With how weakened Tula was, Black recalled his dual type then brought out his own psychic Pokémon, Musha.

The field started changing. This time a wind symbol appeared on the largest screen and the filed changed into an area where there was a lot of metal chain fences beneath both psychics then a sudden and powerful turbulence shot them upward.

The MC briefly explained that the wind arena blasted powerful winds from beneath the entire field. Musha already was having trouble levitating in place due to the strong winds.

The buzzer rang and the second battle began. Espeon quickly tried to create a Shadow Ball, but the wind's distracted him and made his aim go away from his target, even though the Musharna seemed to have trouble actually moving against the strong winds.

"As we have seen so far today folks, The Wind Stage always seems to imbalance any Pokémon! Even flying types have trouble moving within this stage, so how will these trainers handle such strong winds blasting beneath them!?" Guyver cried out.

A thought came to Black as he motioned his Munna to look at him before he gave a hand signal with his fingers pointing up.

The Unova psychic had its eyes glowing as it suddenly lifted the chained fence beneath Espeon into the air, making it panic mid air.

To his credit, Carl acted quickly once more, telling his psychic Pokémon to move himself through his own psychic powers.

Strangely, Carl ordered his psychic to fly upward before suddenly dropping his psychic hold.

Black was to slow to notice that Espeon had aligned himself right in front of the sun to Musha's angle and the dream Pokémon suddenly flinched and looked back down as Espeon fired a fast Shadow Ball, despite Black's cries to dodge the attack.

The evolved psychic type surprisingly found himself falling upward—strange as that was—since the turbulent winds below were still blasting strong winds.

Amazingly, Espeon was still in the air, but his descent was slowing down because of the strong winds. After gaining his balance somewhat, the psychic eeveelution fired another fast Shadow Ball.

This time, Musharna quickly recovered and teleported out of the way before flying back and using psychic.

The Espeon prepared himself and used his own psychic defensively in an orb. However, for one split second, he did not feel anything attacking his shield.

The next split second was him falling down into the ground at normal gravity. This was because Musha used psychic to freeze the fan directly under Carl's Espeon.

The psychic type promptly fell into the chained fence with his forcefield breaking because he lost focus.

Then Musharna seemed to glow as he fired a mutli colored shock wave that blasted Espeon with horrible pain.

"What attack was that!?" Carl cried out.

"It's called Synchronoise! A powerful psychic move that does more damage to Pokémon that have the same type even with Resistance!" Black cried out as Musharna Blasted the attack again, knocking Espeon off its feet and knocking it out cold.

"_Alright… looks like Musharna can handle other psychic Pokémon…_" Anto noted carefully.

Carl laughed. "Not bad kid," He recalled his Espeon. "But here's where I make my comeback! Go Gyarados!"

The mighty water and flying type Pokémon revealed himself with a mighty roar as the field returned to normal. What Anto noticed right away was that this Gyarados was wearing a special jewel.

Black and his Musharna were ready, so they stayed until the field turned into the ice field and froze the entire floor over, not that the Pokémon needed to stand on the ground, but…

Black started off the battle by ordering his Pokémon to launch a psychic attack.

He wasn't expecting his opponent to take out a wrist band with a colored stone on it.

Suddenly, he threw the bright colored stone in the air as the stone with his Gyarados, enveloped itself in rainbow light.

"Not that again!" Wes exclaimed as the group all shielded their eyes.

When the lights died down, Gyarados had Mega evolved into a much bulkier and scarier version of itself.

"Huh? What happened to my attack?" Black wondered. He saw the evolution, but for some reason the attack just bounced off.

Black snapped out of it as soon as he realized the Mega Gyarados was using Dragon Dance.

The mega surprisingly rushed towards Musha then promptly smashed it downward with his tail, cracking the entire ice field below them.

Out of the dust, Musha was knocked out cold.

"H-Hey! What kind of Pokémon is that?!" Bianca yelled in surprise.

"You haven't heard of them? Their called Mega Pokémon. Some Pokémon have the ability to evolve further if they have certain conditions met." Candela explained while Black brought out Costa, his Carracosta. "They're very powerful and that Gyarados was already powerful by itself. Mega Gyarados is one of the few megas that change their type. Instead of flying and water, it's dark and water, so psychic attacks no longer work on him, but bug and fighting now do."

"I'm getting flashbacks back to Nimbasa where we had to fight an army of these." White muttered even when this next round began back in the Water field.

"It probably doesn't help the fact we've actually never defeated more than one mega at a time, does it?" Wes stated, recalling their many encounters with Pokémon usually stronger than them. "And our only win was because several of our Pokémon ganged up on one of them."

"They're that strong?!" Bianca cried out.

"They are stronger, but not invincible." Candela added as the battle waged on as Black tried to use Costa to hit Gyarados with Stone Edge. However, the bulky Pokémon was surprisingly speedy and flexible enough to dodge all rocks and slam into the rock water type. "Megas are allowed in this league tournament, and apparently that Battle AR device the mute psychic used in his battle with Misoka." Candella added in.

Thankfully, Costa had some amazing defense and shrugged off the boosted attack. However, he couldn't land a clean hit and Carl ordered his Pokémon to keep a good distance away from the Pokémon.

Black gritted his teeth. If Carl's Gyarados got through Costa, Tula was a sitting duck! He went through a lot to get here, and he was not getting knocked out on the first round!

The teenage Unovian trainer threw his hand out. "Costa! Use, Shell Smash!"

In a bright light, Black's Pokémon started moving faster and fired another Stone Edge at the Gyarados. This time it hit, but the Mega shrugged the damage off.

Carl saw this and quickly ordered another Dragon Dance as the Gyarados avoided more boulders. With more speed, the large blue water Mega weaved past the fast moving stones.

Black gritted his teeth and ordered another Shell Smash. However, as soon as he did, Carl ordered another Dragon Dance.

"They are both calling out boosting moves." Jamie stated.

"They are planning to end this soon with one hit." Misoka offered. "However, is there a move good enough to hit Gyarados with his speed boosted that much? Even with his own boost, I cannot see Black's Pokémon scoring a direct hit onto the opponent."

"So kid, I think it's time we ended this. How about the last attack to decide the match?" Carl offered.

"Hey! I still have one more Pokémon than you!" Black quipped back even though there was sweat going down his forehead. Tula didn't stand a chance against a highly boosted Pokémon like this.

"You and I both know you're bluffing, so here we go! Gyarados, use Waterfall!"

From high in the sky, The Gyarados rushed for Costa like a bullet multiplied with the speed and mass of a giant meteor.

Black's mind went into overdrive in an instant, trying to figure out a way to stop that kind of power even with all of his boosts.

He only had one choice.

"I was planning to save this for later but… Costa, use Mystic Gaia!" Black cried out.

Costa's eyes actually glowed white and suddenly cackled with mystic light as he summoned a levitating boulder right in front of him that shot right for the speeding Mega.

People weren't expecting the one boulder to do much against the Pokémon charging at amazing power and speed right towards it. However, they also did not expect the boulder to suddenly grow in size and form quickly into a giant spike.

"What!?" Carl cried as the attack connected with Mega Gyarados.

The attack created a deafening boom and everyone shielded their eyes and felt blown away from the impact.

Afterward… a normal Gyrados was seen falling into the shallow water, cold an unconscious.

"What the heck? I have never seen a move like that before!" Carl cried out as he recalled his Pokémon and went to black over the reformed arena.

Since the end of the battle was decided, The Mc declared Black the winner and the whole arena cheered wildly, except for a certain group.

"I got the idea for it from a friend." Black responded as he shook hands with Carl and then glanced over to Anto.

Everyone in that group stared in surprise.

"What was…" Candela asked in shock.

"That?" Tiana finished.

However, those traveling with a certain mute knew exactly what that was.

Jamie spoke out next. "Did Black just…"

"Yes. I think he did." Wes confirmed.

"_So…_" The amnesiac continued to stare at Black waving at him. "_Black also knows Fusion Moves._"

* * *

[Later]

"So you can combine Pokémon moves together. Wait till professor Willow and Blanche hears about this!" Candela exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah and that last move I used was a Fusion Move of both Ancient Power and Stone Edge. Apparently it just makes one giant and very, very hard to stop rock then shots it." Black had just finished explaining what Fusion Moves were and who made them. The entire group was in the main lobby discussing their battles.

"How did you learn about it anyway?" Wes asked Black. "I know Anto used them several times over his battles, but I don't know how you figured it out."

"White told me about it, when she saw you guys training them once." Black responded.

Everyone turned to the girl with a cap that had the same color as her name. "We keep in touch some times and it came up in conversations."

Anto felt a little bad though. He never mentioned it was a secret, but he liked to think of Fusion Moves as his own signature thing with him and his group.

"That's not fair! I wanna learn some of those cool moves too!" Bianca whined.

"By the way Bianca, have you seen Cheren? I saw him among the contestants, but I never got to meet with him." Black asked.

The blonde girl sighed. "I tried to meet with him, but I couldn't find him. It's not usually like him to be so hard to find."

… While the conversation was going around, Candela noticed that her friend, Misoka was deep in thought as she looked down on a tablet.

"Are you alright?" The leader of Team Valor asked.

"The schedule for the next round has been updated." Misoka declared, getting everyone's attention. She showed everyone her tablet. "These are the next 16 battlers and who they are facing."

They all scanned the remaining sixteen contestants.

"I'm against someone named Jakob Forrest." Bianca stated.

"I have a girl named Velora Juldias." Black mentally noted to get a video of her match later.

However, Anto looked for his specific picture…

"_AWW COME ON!?_" He stood up and psionically shouted.

It showed that his next match was against Haruto Izuru.

* * *

[Elsewhere…]

Drip.

Drip.

Drip Drop Drip.

The rain continued to hammered hard back at Icirrus City.

Despite the heavy storm, four figures stood in front of the collapsed Dragon Tower.

"_Welcome, one and all. How long has it been since all of us got together like this?_"

"Four months."

Thunder boomed.

"… _Really? I thought it was two hundred years_."

"No, we met prior due to the birth of Subject Five."

Another voice inquired, "Remind me again why we didn't just meet with him and tell him about us?"

"It was in preparation for the rebirth of the dragons. We all know what happened during ancient times, and what their rebirth means for us. We basically didn't have much time to try and 'recruit' him."

"_The timing after their rebirth is short. We've been slowly collecting power over the fragments for millennium just for this moment._"

"It is a shame that one of the Mew clones detected us. We used much Essence to trap something with that much power."

"Does it matter? We still have enough to open the seal."

"_She's right. In fact, everyone get ready, we're going to start the weakening process. It's time for the eternal chains… to finally break._"

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**So honesty time, I do like battles as much as the next guy, but even I am worried that I might be pushing it here in the league where there are battles galore. Thankfully, I have a few ideas to keep the battles interesting or at least give them some meaning to the overall plot. **

**However, I have a nasty feeling that you guys might get bored of the battles very quickly, which is a shame since I'm planning some crazy battles as the tournament comes to a close.**

**So what do you guys think? I try my best to make the battles not as predictable as possible, but I realize that not all battles are interesting mostly due to the fact that this is text and battles look a lot better on a screen that being described in words.**

{Extra: On the GO}

Anto: You keep mentioning your friends, Spark and Blanche. Who are they?

Candela: Well they are the leaders of Team Instinct and Team Mystic respectively. Blanche is the smartest person I've ever met. Blanche is always one of the most annoying people to battle against since that person uses some annoying tactics.

Anto: … Why did Black ask if Blanche was a girl or a guy? What is Blanche's gender?

Candela: …

[Flashback]

Team Mystic Recruit: Blanche, what are you?

Blanche: I am the leader of Team Mystic.

Team Mystic Recruit: No, I mean uhh… what's 'in your pants'?

Blanche: Wisdom.

[End of Flashback]

Candela: … And then there's Spark! The Dauntless Leader of Team Instinct! He is… he is… umm…

[Flash back]

Candela: So quick question Spark, how do you keep your hair like that?

Spark: Oh. I can show you. It's a cool trick I learned.

Blanche: (In Blanche's thoughts) I wonder what kind of technique keeps Spark's hair so pointy even in water?

Spark: (Pokes an Electrode with a fork that immediately shocks him.)

Candela and Blanche: Yeah that makes sense.

[End of Flashback]

Anto: …

Candela: …

Anto: …

Candela: … So…?

Anto: …?

Candela: Do you wanna hear about Professor Willow?

* * *

**{Author Notes}**

**In all seriousness, I love Pokémon Go. Been playing it for a while but I've stopped a bit recently since it drains my battery like crazy. **

**I am not going to tell you guys what Team I am on, because let's face it, we can get pretty petty when it comes to game rivalry and I don't want to cross that line. **

**You may think that I am Valor with my inclusion of Candela and the little skit I made above. If so, you can believe that if you like. If you believe I'm in the other two teams, you can also believe that. **

**However, I won't deny that I've seen a lot of comics of these three and I sort of fell in love with their characters. You can expect Spark and Blanche making an appearance soon {As soon as I either figure which gender I want Blanche to be in this story, or if Pokémon Go is going to release his or her sex in the near future}**

**Anyway, see you guys soon.**


	47. Ep 47: QEB ELPQ

Episode 47: (Look for the Caesar's Code)

* * *

"… Hey Hoopa." Anto looked to his right to see Hoopa floating right next to him on a beach of a tropical island.

The proud, but small ghost psychic type folded his arms. "**Remind me again why I don't blast you to kingdom come, Human?**"

Well for one he found out he was immortal… though he probably shouldn't test that out in his dream-dimension-thing-or-whatever. The second obvious reason was that killing him would definitely have an impact and potentially trap the small Pokémon here.

He went with the third option.

"Because it's too much effort to do." Anto answered nonchalantly.

Seconds went by as Hoopa's face remained frozen.

The small Pokémon put a hand on his chin. "**I do find cleaning up the mess afterward to be very tedious…**" Hoopa examined carefully.

And people told him laziness wouldn't help in life.

"Ahh, if it isn't Anthony." The Fake Anto came out wearing a hula shirt, shorts, and a flower necklace with two coconut drinks in his hand. He gave the other coconut to Hoopa before turning back to Anto. "How are you?"

"I still have no idea who the heck you are." Anto folded his arms before looking to Hoopa for answers.

"**Now that the 'other you' has returned, I think it's time for some answers. Who are you and why are you trying to destroy my world?!**" That quickly caught Anto's attention. Hoopa was here because his world was in danger?

The fake boy looked out to the ocean. "For now, just call me Anthony, or Fake, or Zeed, which ever works between you two. As for destroying your world, I assure you, I'm not doing it… at least on purpose."

"Zeed? What are you talking about?" Anto asked. That third name felt… familiar for some reason. Where had he heard that before?

The Fake Anto paused and drank his coconut juice, as did Hoopa.

Anto threw his hands up in the air before realizing something. "Hey wait. Why don't I have a coconut drink?"

"Alright let me tell you something." Fake quickly said, making the real amnesiac narrow his eyes. "As you both realize this is not a normal dream. This is a pocket dimension of sorts that I have manifested in this boy's subconscious."

"You make it sound like I'm supposed to understand a single word you just said." Anto folded his arms in a huff.

Fake rolled his eyes. "Let's try this then: I have powers. I am in your mind. I used my powers to create a pocket dimension within your mind. Happy?"

Was that actually supposed to make him feel better!? "No! My mind is not some… some… piece of construction for you to make your own beach resort!" Anto pointed in a very miffed manner.

"But the dream coconut juice is really good…" The fake said as he looked at his drink and started sipping it…

Anto smacked it out of his hands and the drink fell into the beach sand.

"Enough dancing around it and tell me who you are!" Anto yelled in pre-hysteria.

Fake looked sadly at his fallen drink. "But I was enjoying my coconut juice…"

"It's not even real!" The boy started pulling on his hair.

"**Yeesh, Human, just because it isn't real doesn't mean it tastes bad.**" Hoopa commented as he continued to drink his coconut.

Anto's eyes twitched several times despite him not blinking. "Can we just _please_ get on with it?"

Fake sighed. "So, what do you want to know?"

It seemed like the atmosphere changed instantly because Anto suddenly calmed himself down and felt a bit of nervousness within him.

"Who are you?"

Fake folded his arms and looked to the sand with a contemplative look. "I suppose I'll go with an easy answer. You can think of me as a powerful demon of sorts. You can call me Fake because my real name is unpronounceable to humans," He looked to Hoopa. "I can tell you it later."

"**Something tells me that I've heard of you somewhere…**" Hoopa mused.

A demon?! There was a demon in his head?! … Wasn't there a song about this—wait why was he thinking about that!?

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! What are you doing in my mind?!" To further emphasize this point, Anto pointed to his cranium.

"Because you had a strong essence and I wanted to absorb it. It was a lot easier since this body is dead and all." Fake up and said casually.

"What!?" Anto cried out again confused.

Hoopa's eyes suddenly lit up. "**I see where this is going. You've been gravely injured, and are absorbing mortal souls to get back to full power that's why you've attached yourself to this boy's mind.**"

Fake winked and snapped his fingers. "Astute of you, O mighty King."

Hoopa huffed with pride—

"Wait, you're a King?" It should have been sooner, but Anto was starting to realize that he was going to have a hard time figuring out what the heck was going on here.

The other two party members just groaned. Hoopa was rolling his eyes while Fake placed a palm in front of his face.

"For your sake Anthony, I'm going to try one more time," Fake rubbed the bridge of his nose as if he was talking to a mentally challenged child. "Let's see… think of this like a movie. For this scenario think of a powerful cosmic being that was in a deadly battle and barely survived the fight. However, the being was in such a weakened state that he had to go a lower realm and slowly feed off others to get back to strength."

"That's a fairly uncommon story outline." Anto quickly commented. "So that's basically you?"

Fake nodded happily. "Finally! We're on the same page!"

…

"Wait doesn't that mean you're going to absorb my soul, kill me, and free yourself from the world when you're done?" Anto thought out loud since that was how stories like that usually went from following that specific premise.

"Oh so you're not as slow as I first believed you to be!" Fake seemed rather proud to just admitting he was going to kill Anto.

Though, as quickly as Anto thought at the back of his head, he sort of wasn't in the position to defend himself at all.

During this horrible realization, Fake started laughing and walked to Anto. "You know, I'm glad we had this talk. I really feel like we bonded in these… five minutes or so in dream time. I think. I really should make a dream watch for this place. Anywho! Good Luck on Today's Match, kid!"

Fake slapped Anto's back hard then the mute found himself wide awake on his bed.

…

"_BUT I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!?_"

It would be later on that Anto found it that it was 2:00 AM in the morning, and he would not get any more sleep for the rest of that night.

* * *

[Later that morning.]

"Anto, I know you've had sleepless nights before, but did you even sleep at all last night?" Jamie asked worryingly as the boy she was asking while their group of friends was in a large booth for breakfast.

"_Ṩḹḝḝṗ __ḭṧ __ḟṑṝ ṱḫḝ ẝṏṙṱṳṋḁṭḙ._" Anto's left baggy eye twitched.

Black pointed his spoon at obviously sleep deprived boy. "Is his telepathy supposed to sound _glitchy_?" He worded carefully.

"First time I've heard of it like that." Wes admitted after swallowing a blueberry bagel. "He was also psionically screaming into the night for some reason. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"_Ṁỷ __ḹḭḟḗ __ḭṥ __ẳ __ṉḭḡḩṱḿḁṙḗ__._" You know at this point, Anto's friends were wondering if the boy was purposely forcing his eyes to never blink.

"OK, even I have to admit, he's a lot more out of it than usual." Wes noted as he poked his friend with his finger. The only reaction was his right hand twitching.

Misoka and Candela soon came up to the group of friends. "Hey guys! How's it going!?" Candela greeted cheerfully.

"All well except for Anto here," Benga pointed to his friend. "… I think he's having an existential crisis." He tapped his chin in a scholarly manner.

Misoka and Candela noticed how horrible Anto looked. Unfortunately this gave Misoka worry.

"W-What!? B-But he must battle with…"

"There you are, Kiyomi."

Only a few recognized that voice, but they all turned when they saw Haruto Izuru and a Scizor with a jewel placed on his head band walk towards them.

"It seems my family is quite ticked that you're trying to get out of our contract with this little loophole you've made." Haruto smirked haughtily.

Candela took a step forward. "Let's not forget that you agreed to those terms. We have more than one outside witness for that."

"Oh please, just because some hack knew about one of the previous owners of the Dojo, doesn't mean that he'll defeat me." The green haired adolescent proclaimed. "I mean, who would train females such as yourselves if you're just going to fail?"

Most people within earshot glared at him for that sexist comment.

"Really? A sexist comment? Are you trying to be a one dimensional character?" Jamie sighed.

"Wes, you have my permission to pickpocket him." White whispered low to the Orre teen.

"Who said I was going to stop there?" Wes darkly glared.

Haruto paid the peanut gallery behind him no mind, but he did notice Misoka moving to him.

"Anto shall defeat you! He's twice the trainer and has twice the strength of character you have!" The silver haired woman boldly declared.

Haruto still felt confident and turned around, his smile disappearing as he did. "… Is my opponent's head drowning in that bowl of cereal?" The smile only left because he was utterly bemused by this.

Quickly, everyone turned to Anto who had fallen face first into his cereal without anyone noticing.

Benga and Jamie quickly helped their friend up—whose face was wet with milk and cereal pieces—then his mouth fell open with some milk, causing Jamie to wince back in disgust and making Benga lose grip without the other person. This made Anto promptly fall back into his cereal bowl face first.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Haruto and his Scizor laughed mockingly at the pathetic sight. "This is the most humiliating thing I have ever laid eyes on! I almost feel bad for you Kiyomi—almost." He spoke out as he started walking away.

When he was out of sight, everyone turned to the unconscious boy.

"Alright, Anto is in no condition to battle like this." White stated the obvious.

Suddenly, Kryx appeared out of thin air, telekinetically carrying a strange helmet like device. "**Looks like we can use the power of SCIENCE!**" She boldly declared.

There were a surprising amount of people that weren't startled by a psychic type suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Candela and Misoka were not one of those people.

"Is that Elgyem talking?" Candela pointed in disbelief.

"**Translator duh! I'm using my galacto-translator so that I can communicate with your primitive language and sound pitching.**" Kryx proudly stated.

Wes looked over to the still stupefied girls. "She's Anto's Pokémon. She abducted him once to space." Misoka and Candela were clearly needing more context than that, but didn't get any. "Anyway, Kryx, how did you even know Anto had sleep problems?"

"**I wasn't in space silly! I was in your mesosphere!**" Kryx responded before pointing to Anto's side where a Premier Ball jumped out and seemed remodeled to have four metal, spider legs. "**And I remade my Hammer Space Container into a fully functioning mobile base of operations! It can even function as the sacred Human contraption known as "The Disco Ball".**" Kryx took out a remote and pressed the button before the ball transformed on the outside and a large cannon looking thing shot out and fired a large ray of light at some unsuspecting person at the distance.

"AAAHHHH! MY EYES! MY EYES! I'VE GONE BLIND! MY SURGEON CAREER IS RUINED! I FAILED YOU LITTLE TIMMY! I FAILED YOOOOUUUU!" The man wailed into the skies before falling into the ground and sobbing madly.

"**Whoops! That was the weapon system. Wait, but if I placed the neon lights in my cannon, what did I put in the actual sphere? Oh well!**" Kryx mused as she put away the remote after turning off her defense system.

Candela and Misoka were still looking at the man who lost his sight and was now gaining a crowd around him.

"Uhh… is he going to be… OK?" Candela carefully worded.

"Kryx! You have to help that poor man! Anto and I have been trying to tell you to be more careful in your experiments!" White scolded.

"**Oh don't worry, the effects are momentary, it will dissipate soon.**" Kryx dismissed with her limbs on her sides before opening her eyes and looking genuinely curious back to White. "**Wait, "Soon" means "In twelve years" right?**"

Wes spoke up. "Alright, before Kryx accidentally turns machines against man and Pokémon again, (Candela: did you just say _again_?) we should probably help Anto here from his obvious… not functioning." The thief exclaimed while ignoring the now former surgeon wailing in the background.

"Should we not help him first?" Misoka pointed towards the poor man in the background.

Kryx threw her limb. "**I can do that later, I'm sure he has nowhere to be!**" As if on cue, the man wailed out that he couldn't help Timmy get his eye sight back in an afternoon surgery that day.

"Kryx…" White folded her arms.

The psychic type seemed to sigh. "**Fine, gimme a sec.**"

* * *

[Later]

So everyone thought it would be a good idea to move the process of helping Anto in a more secluded area.

"Are we sure this is safe?" Bianca asked carefully since her first impression of Kryx was very… memorable…

Kryx popped her head up from behind Anto's shoulder. "**Oh don't worry about that, I've followed all the safety rules I found on the human guide of how to give birth!**"

"Wait, what—?"

Kryx's eyes showed elation before she pressed a button on Anto's helmet.

Needless to say, the lights and violent shaking of the helmet covering Anto's face did not look ethical, safe, or good.

After a while it stopped.

…

…

Kryx looked around and then threw up her arms. "**It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!**"

Everyone turned to her.

"**What? That's not an earth custom to scream every time an experiment happens?**"

"Is Anto alright?" Binaca asked again with worry.

Everyone shut up as the boy in question started to move again with his arms on the helmet and quickly removing the thing to gasp for air.

"_Why was this attached to my face!?_" Anto asked as he pointed to the object in question.

"Well he sounds normal and looks a lot like himself." Black commented.

"**It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!**"

"_Kryx!_"

"**When is it appropriate to scream it then?**" The psychic type pointed out.

Anto said he felt a headache coming and told her to just return to her Poké Ball before he would explain later.

"Glad to see you're feeling better, got a bit worried there with Kryx." Black patted Anto's back. "So why were you up all night?"

"_The nightmares. The Nightmares. I saw them even when I closed my eyes._" Anto seemed to look pale recalling.

"What nightmares?" Jamie asked.

"_I dreamt I was being used as an experiment by Kryx and no one tried to stop her._"

…

"Whoa! That sounds a lot like what happened!" Benga obliviously smiled. "So what happened when you woke up from it?"

"_I didn't._" Anto duly noted.

At this point, Black coughed and looked at his empty wrist. "Oh well look at the time. I've got to go ready for my match. See you later Anto, good luck with that jerk!" He said as he left and everyone as well left to do what they wanted now that Anto was alright.

…

So why was Anto still standing there not moving?

Why did he shove Kryx's Premier Ball deep into his pockets?

And why where his irises turning purple?

But the strangest thing of all: why was Anto opening his mouth?

"Looks like we've reached this stage already huh? I have to admit Anthony, you've got sharp friends. It's gonna be hard to fool them, but then again, you've always been quite the actor. Weren't you, Mr. School Theater Nerd?"

With that, Zeed strode forward towards the Pokémon League.

* * *

[?]

(Do you remember your first story? Was it told to you by a creative parent playing with their child, or was it by a book where someone had to tell you the words you obviously didn't know how to read yet?)

It was the day of the second rounds. 16 trainers had made it past the first round and in this second round, the stipulation for this match wa double battle. The first to knock out all four Pokémon from their opponent would win.

(I remember. I _lived _through them. I was there in my first, my second, my third, my seventy-eighth, my 400345th story—all of them. I'm not mortal. I am eternal.)

As he walked back down the same dark hallways, reflecting once more, one could see something different when the young teen was walking.

When he started walking into the sunlight, he heard a foreign sound of people cheering wildly.

(It's strange when one thinks of it. The screams of Terror are actually different than the screams of Joy and Excitement. The latter are less likely to be silenced suddenly by death.)

As the crowds died down, he looked across the field towards his opponent: a smug, older teen with green hair and bangs covering one of his eyes.

"Ha! Listen, boy, make this easier on yourself and just surrender!"

(I love arrogant people. It's always fun to see them quickly lose their bravado in front of true power.)

"Anto" said nothing but smiled cockily then motioning one of his fingers to say, 'Come and get me'.

Only a few of his friends immediately saw something off with their friend, but they said nothing while the other cheered.

(Ahh right. No powers. Not yet anyway. Guess I'll have to do this the human way.)

The younger teen was barely paying attention as the MC declared the start of the match. He did snap out of his thoughts when his opponent brought out two Pokémon of interest: an Abra with a bow sleeping on the ground and a Bastiodon.

(OK. I think there's a pattern here. Misoka came from a school that taught Pokémon different forms of combat. Since Sea Weed Hair here is from a rival dojo or something that means the kid is still facing against battle-hardened Pokémon with war themes.)

The younger boy carefully eyed the bow and the defensive looking Bastiodon with a… saddle?

Then he quickly threw out Sentinel and Super Nut.

"**Another day, another tale of epic battles for Super Nut and Friends to adventure across!**" The Heroic Pokémon jumped up one of the platforms and pointed a clamp up to the sky.

Sentinel walked a bit before looking at Super Nut. "**Aww man, I forgot my cape!**"

Before the match began, the Guyver declared that this round will have the field lock on to normal mode for the entire battle.

So when he did, Haruto quickly ordered his Abra awake. Something was strange though, it looked as if The Abra forced himself to wake and quickly teleported on top of the Bastiodon's head with his bow drawn.

Amazingly, an arrow made from psychic energy started to form from the bow.

The young trainer quickly ordered Super Nut to descend and use Protect as a the purple arrow shot into the forcefield—then exploded with telekinetic energy.

"What the heck was that!?" Benga screamed from the bleachers.

"I've heard of that. He compressed the psychic energy into a smaller, more compact form before launching it at his opponent. It's easier to launch and it has much more power when it make contact with a target." Misoka explained.

"So it's basically how Ohko uses Focus Blast." Wes commented before looking back to the fight.

"**This reminds me of the tale of Archer Man, vigilante of Man Hat City!**" Super Nut reminisced despite keeping up the barrier as psychic arrow after psychic arrow bombarded his forcefield. "**Defender of truth, justice, and fashion! I liked his hat.**"

"**Was there an issue on him stopping a rampaging Bastiodon?**" The dual type beside the super hero asked curiously.

"**Huh. I don't know. That does sound like one of his adventures.**" The Ferrothorn contemplated.

However, Sentinel just pointed his claw in front of him. "**I was talking about the one ramming towards us right now.**"

Super Nut turned to see the opposing Pokémon closing the gap very, very quickly by using Rock Climb to launch himself at ramming speed while Abra was continually shooting arrows with increased rate on top of him.

Luckily, the two misfits knew exactly what to do!

"**AAAAHHHHHH!?**" They both yelled as they hugged each other when Bastiodon rammed into the protective bubble and promptly burst it.

Smoke filled the area after the contact and Bastiodon and Abra flew out of the dust clouds and slid in the ground.

However, as the dust was starting to settle, nothing remained of the other two but two shadows—

"**Eat this!**" Sentinel cried up from high in the sky as he threw a speeding Shadow Ball down on his opponents.

Despite how fast the attack went, Abra's eye lids started glowing and quickly teleported on the other side of the field with his bow drawn and fired three bolts of psychic arrows at Sentinel. The dragon skeleton suddenly felt a vine coil around his claw before being pulled away from the three arrows.

Super Nut acted fast as he yanked his ally away, but Abra tilted his bow and aimed right for the falling Ferrothorn.

An idea formed fast for Super Nut as he Used Stealth rocks mid air, sending one large one right in front of the path between them and a barrage of arrows. Several arrows stabbed into the rock before imploding with a boom, throwing both Pokémon into one of the other floating rocks that were now scattering around the arena.

Sentinel and Super Nut got up then the delta Pokémon quickly used Phantom Force to appear right behind the duo of Abra with his claws ignited with dragon energy mid air. He swiped at the Abra as fast as he could, but a barrier blocked the attack.

The Protect move from the Bastiodon repelled Sentinel back and Abra did not hesitate to fire another arrow as the dual type was sent flying.

He and his ally did not expect a boulder to come flying in between the shot and taking the arrow before their changed trajectory flew off and made the boulder explode a safe distance from Sentinel who back flipped mid air and slid on the ground.

"**They either teleport away or straight up block my attacks. How do we get them!?**" Sentinel cried out before vanishing into Phantom Force as more arrows were sent his way.

Abra quickly turned his attention to Super Nut above them and suddenly teleported the two of them. The masked Pokémon looked around but suddenly felt something on the rock behind him.

Instead of looking back, Ferrothorn jumped away as the boulder he was on shattered. He swung and look behind him to see that Bastiodon was now using Protect and surrounding him and Abra in a forcefield. What was even more disconcerting was the fact Abra was moving the rock they were on, effectively making them a moving projectile locked on Ferrothorn.

Super Nut's eyes widened at the combo attack. "**Oh that is so awesome!**" He then yelped as he swung towards a hard right to avoid the duo smashing through him live half a dozen Stealth Rocks in the air.

Sentinel appeared near Anto. "**Anti, we need help here!**" He waved his claws up frantically.

(Alright, Anthony, what would you do?) The boy's eyes quickly viewed everything in the battlefield, even the less chaotic parts of the fight.

(Nothing on the surface, so what's your next move, Anthony? … Hmm? Oh so this is how your brain works! … That looks crazy—crazy enough to work!) "_Super Nut, can you control your Leech Seeds after they bloom!?_"

The Ferrothorn slung into the air with his opponents quickly after him. "**I dunno!**" He yelled as he fell back down with his enemies in pursuit.

"_Meh. He's worked with less._" The boy decided before explaining the plan.

Sentinel and Super Nut heard the plan, but then they had to first get the two enemies off Ferrothorn. The Delta Pokémon fired a Shadow Ball at the flying boulder. The Protect move absorbed the hit, but Sentinel kept his barrage up, forcing the two to change course towards Sentinel.

The skeleton braced his ground as Bastiodon dropped his force field and landed on the ground. Abra drew his bow and fired at Sentinel as the steel type beneath him started using Rock Climb to rush at him with amazing speed.

Sentinel activated Shadow Claw and ripped apart the arrows coming his way but as Bastiodon came barreling towards him, he phased into the ground to avoid being hit.

Haruto was getting impatient and ordered Abra to actually aim properly this time and sense his opponent since he was a ghost type. As soon as Sentinel appeared on a different side of the arena where a lot of the broken Stealth Rocks had fallen to, Abra turned expertly and fired a fast arrow that slammed and exploded in front of the dark skeleton.

"That is one athletic Abra." Wes admitted as he was watching from the group.

"One of them alone is hard enough, but the two of them together seem invincible. How will Anto fair against them?" Misoka anxiously spoke out.

Candela looked back at the boy. "He doesn't look like he's giving up."

However, Jamie stared deeply at Anto, but not with hope, but doubt. It wasn't because of the battle, but because something wasn't right about the look in his eyes. At the same time, Tiana, who was capable of using Aura, saw something off with Anto's soul.

Super Nut jumped in front of the injured Sentinel.

"**Please tell me you did what you had to.**" The delta Pokémon slowly struggled to get up.

"**I won't know if I try! … That phrase fits here right? Did it sound heroic enough?**" Super Nut glanced back at Sentinel honestly.

Unfortunately, while the two talked about one-liners, Haruto's Pokémon came rushing like an out of control locomotive to them. Abra fired more shots, but instead of Protect, Super Nut held his ground and took the shots.

"What the heck is he up to?" Haruto wondered as he noticed his opponent's steel type taking in the hits.

Bastiodon was rampaging towards his targets before a question popped in his head: why did his legs suddenly stop moving?

BAM!

In one instant everything changed.

The reason why Sentinel was distracting them both was so that Ferrothorn could work on a trap. He went towards an area and quickly planted Leech Seeds across the area, hiding them by scattering a few shattered Stealth Rocks nearby this location. He was up in the air when Sentinel got into place, but was then knocked further back.

Super Nut had to convince his opponents to stay their course from the trap, so he took on the hits and didn't use his force field in case they would try to move.

Bastiodon didn't notice that one of the rocks he crushed on his way to attack his opponents just so happened to have a dozen Leech Seeds hidden under them that quickly grew and ensnared his stubby legs to a halt. This stopped the shield Pokémon in his tracks and sent the Abra flying off his head towards his enemies. Super Nut acted fast and used Power Whip to launch his clamp right into the stomach of the flying Abra and shove him back into the ground.

Following that, Sentinel used Phantom Force again to appear right above Bastiodon's head—where he wasn't as heavily protected and unleashed a torrential Dragon breath.

A loud buzzer rang, signaling that both Pokémon were down and out. This meant that Anto still had all four of his Pokémon.

"And our young competitor takes the lead!" The Mc cried out for the entire crowd to cheer.

"What!?" Haruto screamed out in surprise. "How the heck did you do that!? My Pokémon were clearly superior to yours!"

(Anyone with more than one brain cell can tell you that power is only a factor in a fight. Unfortunately, all my previous enemies learned this the hard way.)

"_Just hurry up and bring out your best Pokémon now._" The boy spoke to Haruto with a foreign and cold feeling.

The green haired adolescent clicked his tongue and threw out two more Pokémon, a Hitmonchan and a Scizor.

The Stealth Rocks came to life and quickly launched themselves towards both Pokémon.

Not many expected to see the two Pokémon destroy all rocks heading their way with little effort.

"Oh that doesn't look good." Benga commented what everyone was thinking up at the stands.

"Hitmonchan! Scizor! No mercy!" Haruto hissed as he threw up his hand, revealing a bracelet with a Key Stone etched into it.

The Scizor was surrounded in rainbow light before he came out as Mega Scizor.

When the next round began, Super Nut and Sentinel weren't expecting the two Pokémon to rush in right after them.

The Hitmonchan rushed in for the Delta Pokémon. In retaliation, Sentinel ignited his claws with Shadow Claw and swiped at the opposing fighting type.

However, Hitmonchan ducked under the swipe and threw his fist back as it suddenly glowed a light blue color. The boxer quickly stepped forward, twisting his body in perfect form as he uppercut Sentinel in his ribcage with a heavy Ice Punch attack and knocked him hard into the sky—breaking through two floating Stealth Rocks above them.

Ferrothron quickly used Protect, but Mega Scizor stopped and used Swords Dance before attacking the shield with X-Scissor. The bubble shattered like glass before Scizor, with uncanny speed, grabbed Ferrothron's clamp and swung him around like a rag doll.

"**Why! Is! This! Always! Happening!?**" Super Nut cried each time he was thrown into the ground. He quickly used his two other clamps to tie him to the ground, but he felt something above him.

To his surprise, Sentinel was falling right on top of him and quickly the steel type removed one of his claws to catch his ally from falling on top of him and his spikes. However, with one less claw, Scizor pulled harder, making Super Nut hold on and immobile.

Hitmonchan jumped with his fist set on fire this time as he headed towards the weakened Sentinel. As soon as the both Super Nut and Sentinel—who recently had his head spinning stop—looked up, Hitmonchan punched Sentinel hard onto Super Nut with the fire fist, causing them both to get hit by powerful flames which while Sentinel was resisting, the Pokémon beneath him was jabbing spikes onto his bones and was feeling the pain of a type that was for times effective.

The attack exploded and quickly the buzzer rang to signal both Sentinel and Super Nut were taken down without much of a fight.

"Even though Anto had a Ferrothron, Haruto's melee Pokémon were still able to knock out both of Anto's Pokémon without any damage…" White spoke in shock.

"For a jerk, he's got powerful Pokémon." Candela noted.

Back in the battle field, the younger trainer recalled his two Pokémon. He checked his Battle AR and noticed his opponent had Pokémon that had above average stats.

Still, it only made sense to bring out these two. One of them had a personal reason for this battle. The other? He always gave his best.

Takezo and Ohko entered into the field.

"**A skeleton, a steel ball, now a rodent and a cripple?**" The Mega Scizor folded his claws with disappointment. "**What? Were all true warriors scared away?**"

Ohko looked down to his friend. "**Yo Tak? What's a warrior?**"

"**From my understanding, it's someone who dedicates their lives to fighting.**" The small one responded as he drew two of his wooden blades.

"**Their lives to fighting? Yo, I can't even do that. Fighting too much would cut on my favorite television shows.**" Ohko tossed away his cloak.

Takezo smiled. "**You do have a point. Ever since Kryx adapted a translator for television, I too have been quite excited for the next episode of General Pokémon Center.**"

Hitmonchan angrily grunted. "**Hey! Take us seriously dang it!**"

"**Let us just finish this.**" Mega Scizor stepped forward.

As soon as he stepped forward, the air changed. Takezo and Ohko's eyes sharpened. The two opposing Pokémon paused from that.

{Recommended Music: Two Steps From Hell- El Dorado}

"**I'm always serious!**" Ohko pumped up while Takezo took a stance with both his wooden blades.

They both launched themselves at their opponents. The Patrat with amazing speed as he amazingly closed the distance—jumped on one left over boulder on the ground then just wall jump right for Mega Scizor while spinning his entire body with his blade in the span of three seconds.

The Mega Scizor's eyes widened at the sheer speed and brought both of his claws up to block—then saw the electricity gathering around the small normal type before he felt a shock course through his entire body. Takezo motioned his entire weight and momentum downward, knocking the claws down and smashing Mega Scizor face first into the ground in a matter of seconds.

Hitmonchan stared in disbelief before taking a step towards Tak—taking a step forward to punch the rock just thrown at him. When the rock shattered into pieces, the fighting type saw a blue leg shot past his punch and land on his face.

The impact made a loud sound before Hitmonchan was sent flying away by Ohko's kick. The one armed fighting type saw his opponent and ran for him, while behind him, Mega Scizor got back up to face his smaller opponent.

Takezo was waiting for him, gripping his blades tightly after finishing a Swords Dance. The two stared at each other before stepping in to a flurry of slashes and stabs. Mega Scizor unleashed an assault of X-Scissor on the smaller Pokémon. Takezo side stepped each slash before timing his swing in an upward motion to hit Mega Scizor's chin.

The attack connected, but it didn't do much thanks to Mega Scizor's amazing defense and he quickly stood up and used Bullet Punch on the Pokémon to knock him back.

Meanwhile, the mute trainer quickly looked up his Battle AR. "_Alright let's see here. I can actually use the Synergy Burst on both of my Pokémon. Cool. But the down side is that it takes longer to charge up. Really hope they can handle it just a little longer._"

Ohko round house kicked Hitmonchan, but the boxer stepped back to avoid the swing before hopping back with a solid Power-Up Punch on Ohko's right face. The Sawk held strong and quickly kneed his opponent in his stomach.

The two fighters staggered back before Ohko jumped and spun kick—only for Hitmonchan to bring up his right arm to block the kick, step forward, and punch Ohko again in the face. However, Hitmonchan quickly grabbed the leg he caught and pulled back after the punch to prevent the Sawk from flying.

BAM!

The second punch actually created a shockwave which sent the one armed Pokémon right through one of the floating platforms.

Hitmonchan panted for air then looked towards where Mega Scizor and Takezo were battling.

"**Where…**" Hitmonchan stopped and looked towards the dust cloud he made."**Do ya think… you're goin?**" Ohko stood up, breathing in deeply. "**You and I… still are fighting…**"

Hitmonchan sized up his opponent before he saw Ohko fell onto his knee.

"**Stand down, you can barley fight anymore.**" Hitmonchan responded.

Ohko smiled before he pointed towards one of the arms of the boxer was hanging down like string, the one that Hitmonchan tried to block with. "**The way I see it: ya can't use your left hand no more and I can't use my legs that good, but we still got one good hand each. Why don't we end this?**"

"**We? There is no ****we****.**" Hitmonchan declared as he rushed towards Ohko with his fist ablaze with another upgraded Power Up Punch.

Ohko forced himself to stand, trembling a bit as his opponent reached for him. The boxer jumped, his fist flaring even brighter as Ohko clenched his fist so hard, the trainers could hear his muscles tightening all the from the edge of the battlefield.

Ohko threw his punch, which was actually his most powerful move: Elemental Uppercut.

The explosion covered the entire battlefield as the two made contact, forcing the trainers and even some of the audience members to cover their eyes from the gales.

The dust settled and both Hitmonchan and Ohko were planted on walls and they were both on the opposite end of the arenas.

Haruto stared at shock as he saw his Hitmonchan out cold.

"You're kidding me… a no named brat is pushing me this far!?" The green haired young adult clenched his fist before looking towards Anto with a glare. "I will not lose! I am part of the Izuru family, and we do not know defeat! Mega Scizor, end this!"

The Mega complied and quickly locked onto the small Pokémon. The bug and steel type attacked faster than before, making Takezo go on the defensive. The small Pokémon was forced to use Detect a lot until it failed and the Pokémon got hit into one of the fallen Stealth Rocks.

"End it!" Haruto shrieked. His mega complied and used another Bullet Punch towards the downed normal type.

"_A shame it couldn't fill in time, but better now than never._" The young trainer pressed his button on the Battle AR.

A rainbow light suddenly wrapped around Takezo and the burst of power pushed away Mega Scizor.

"What the heck is that!?" Haruto screamed out.

Back in the stands, Wes moved in closer. "Time to finally see how Synergy Burst works against Mega Evolution…"

Takezo jumped in again with new strength and speed that surprised even Mega Scizor. The two danced with some amazing sword play that funnily enough entranced the crowd.

"Leave it to the young Anto to have unexpected sword fights in his battles!" The MC exclaimed.

Mega Scizor boosted itself one more time with Swords Dance before unleashing a very powerful X-Scissor.

Takezo ducked under the attack… then inhaled deeply as he quickly positioned one of his blades behind him.

The young trainer quickly pointed his hand out. "_Tempest Laceration!_"

Faster than even a blink of an eye something cut Mega Scizor. The steel type stepped back before he saw something strange.

There was electricity dancing around Takezo as he drew both of his blades…

_Black_ electricity.

Suddenly, the two wooden blades Takezo was wielding were coated in dark energy but then quickly turned gold and extended the blades into two katana shaped blades.

Takezo jumped and started fighting again with mega Scizor, but the strangest thing, even after so many Sword Dance boosts… Takezo was over powering the Mega. Each time the blades struck something, they glowed brighter and had a much darker outline as even more black electricity started dancing around Takezo's body.

"No." Haruto whispered as he saw Takezo countered a Bullet Punch and swept the mega off its feet.

"No!" The green haired young man screamed when Mega Scizor tried to get back up and attack, only for Takezo to side step and stab him right in the chest. The impact made the mega fly until he slid to a stop, and even when he stopped, the Mega fell to his knees.

Takezo took a step forward—before spinning. He slashed the air and a cut shaped beam suddenly shot out of both blades and absorbed together into one giant slash that hit Mega Scizor right out of the arena.

{-End Music-}

(Swords Dance, Thunderbolt, and Assurance. The Tri move: Tempest Laceration. The Patrat has one of the most powerful Tri Moves so far, being able to hold blades that can shoot cut blasts and make both user and move get stronger, faster, and more skillful each time they are swung. Anthony that talent is surprisingly dangerous…) The young trainer smiled as Mega Scizor fell and reverted back to his normal form. (I think I'm going to miss you the most out all of them.)

"NO!" Haruto yelled as the buzzers rang and Anto was declared the winner.

"Yes! He won!" Misoka cried out as she hugged Candela.

"Easy! Easy! You always were so emotional, Mis." The Team Valor leader tried to calm her friend down.

Benga smiled. "Isn't that awesome—huh? Jamie? Where did you go?"

Everyone turned to see Jamie was no longer in her seat. Actually, even Tiana was not in her seat as well.

"Where did they go…?" White pointed out.

* * *

[Elsewhere]

"Jamie!" The brown haired girl looked over her shoulder to see the girl with long black hair running up to her.

"You know don't you?" Tiana asked as the two of them kept pace. The screens they both passed by were showing that Haruto recalled his Pokémon and quickly left the field and the teenage trainer looking confused as he returned his Pokémon.

"W-What are you talking about?" Jamie turned back ahead and kept moving on. "Hey, isn't your sister's match coming up next?"

Tiana walked faster. "Jamie, I have Aura. It may not be strong, but I can basically see people's souls," She grabbed her shoulder. "And ever since I saw Anto walk out into the field something has been wrong with his Aura… your Aura reacted weirdly when he first started the battle."

Jamie looked nervous.

"What are you hiding? Do you know what happened to him?" The black haired girl asked.

"Tiana, listen to me." Jamie spoke out before suddenly grabbing the girl and hugging her.

"(Forget what you saw or else you'll die.)"

Jamie then let go and quickly ran away from the amethyst eyed girl.

Tiana looked on with utter shock as Jamie disappeared into a crowd. As she did, her memory flashed of that time when that odd cloaked figure led her to save Anto.

She clenched her fist. "There's more to this isn't there?"

* * *

[Later]

(Hmm~ Da do da~ dee dum.) He stopped as he saw the brown haired girl standing in front of him all alone in the hallway.

"_Jamie? What are you—_"

"Cut the crap." The green eyed girl glared before fishing her pockets. "I know who you are. What have you done to Anto?"

"…" The young teen looked genuinely confused, but Jamie continued her glare. A few more seconds passed until. "Well, you caught me."

Jamie was obviously not expecting Anto's real voice to come out. She also wasn't expecting Anto's ordinary, dark brown colored eyes to suddenly turn a deep purple.

"Now is that a Locater Stone in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" The purple eyed Anto crossed his hands in an amused manner.

Jamie grunted before slowly reaching for her pocket and revealing an oval shaped, smooth stone with carved symbols on it.

"So that's why none of you guys tried to meet with this kid, you had a stooge babysitting him this entire time!" He chuckled darkly. Even with a voice that character did not… fit…

"Look, whatever you're doing, stop!" Jamie gathered strength and said.

Anto's eye brow was raised high. "Uh question? Yeah, what exactly did they tell you about me?"

The girl seemed surprised. "Y-You're a… a… True Being? Whatever that meant…"

"Oh jeez. They're still on about that?" He placed a palm on his face. "I guess that's why my old friend kept warning me about having fanatics as followers…"

"Just whatever you're doing, bring Anto back!" Jamie regained her courage.

Suddenly, the boy in front of her removed his hand on his face and his eyes narrowed at her. "… Listen, grunt girl, I'm going to go easy on you since obviously the ones who sent you don't gave a flying care," He stepped forward to her and quickly slammed her to the side of the wall with his face over hers. "But let me tell you this: Do. Not. Command. Me."

He stepped away from her, letting Jamie catch her breath.

The boy smiled. "Now, come on then. I've always wanted ice cream. I wonder if they have fish flavored ice cream here." He spoke so casually and started walking towards the exit.

Jamie felt her body ache and slowly slid to the floor.

It was at that point, Jamie knew what was coming very soon if he started to appear.

And she dreaded everything that came with it.

"Anto… please, please be safe…"

* * *

{?}

"Hello? Hello!?" Dark brown eyes or Amber eyes looked around the empty path in front of him. There was nothing but a purple void around and him and what looked to be ruins… that were all above him and seemed to be put upside down.

"Where the heck am I?"


	48. Ep 48: Flames from a Revolution PT 1

"OK this is weird… and that's saying something considering my circumstances…" Anto strolled along the dream path as he looked around.

Even with all dreams before this one, there wasn't something as _mystic_ as there was with this place. The entire atmosphere felt old to the point where it felt like this place was even older than the universe.

The disappointing thing was that the young boy half expected some eldritch nightmare to show up at any moment now. There was the disturbing fact that the longer he kept walking, the more he felt like he was going nowhere.

9 11-14-15-23 25-15-21

Anto clutched his head. What was that? Did he just feel _numbers?_

12-15-19-20 19-15-21-12

The amber eyed boy looked around before he felt something strange…

Give

Way

Below

Him.

Suddenly,

Anto

Found

Himself

Falling

Upward!

"OOGH!" Anto grunted as he fell on the ceiling. He quickly got up and looked up… or down… which was now up… "Well this is going to get disorienting fast. I gotta get out of here."

Anto looked across the strange ruin he fell on. He noticed some kind of temple and decided he would make his way there. Though he had this odd feeling that something was still not right.

As he made his way to the steps, he noticed something odd about the temple. For one it was much smaller than he thought. The second strange thing about it was that the symbols all across this place were…

They were all moving.

And all of them seemed to be gathering around him and watching.

Just

Watching.

Anto bolted for inside the temple. "NOPENOPENOPENOPE!"

"Huh?"

"WHOAAAA!?" The young amnesiac should have definitely seen something coming into that temple. Though he wasn't expecting to fall again, but at least it was downward this time.

But another problem arose in that he was still falling.

"Oh great, now I'm free falling. My bi weekly falling-from-high-places-training has prepared me for this moment." It was either sarcasm or insanity for Anto to show as more of this went on. If he wanted to keep his marbles in check he might have to be as sarcastic and story savy as he possibly could. Good thing his amnesia didn't extend towards factual knowledge of story troupes.

As he continued to fall, Anto started to notice something odd about the area he was falling through. It was no longer a void but for some reason it looked bright, orange-red light like it was sundown, and there were clouds as far as the eye could see.

It was soothing and beautiful if one wasn't falling endlessly.

12-15-19-20 19-15-21-12, 23-8-25 1-18-5 25-15-21 8-5-18-5?

Again he felt numbers, but something was odd. Why did it feel like words?

"I… I don't know how I got here!" He clutched his head even though there was no pain, but this strange lightheadedness he was feeling.

25-15-21 23-1-14-4-5-18 13-15-18-5 20-8-1-14 1-14-25 19-15-21-12 4-15-5-19

"What the heck do you mean by that!?" Odd, did he understand that last string of numbers?

"Brace yourself."

The amnesiac wondered what that meant, but he didn't see much of anything but stars coming from the cloud.

Stars?

Why are they all moving as well?

They all were converging right in front of his falling path.

"Those better not be actual suns!" The black haired boy screamed before he braced himself for impact.

"Don't be afraid Anthony," A gentle voice called out. "I will be here to catch—"

SPLAT!

"Ofm m' nos'! Di setter not tran'late info realf wold!" (Oh my nose! This better not translate into the real world!)

"Huh, are you bleeding on me? I've never had someone bleed on me."

Anto opened his eyes to find himself on top of another constellation creature, a very, very, very large one that looked like a Wailord.

"Let me get that for you."

"Get what?" The amber eyed boy asked before he realized that his nose was fixed. "Oh… thanks? … I've never seen your kind talk before aside from that trippy time I was wearing a blue berry bage…. Great, Black was right, my conversations do go to weird places."

"You're talking to a star whale in the middle of the skies after breaking your nose in a dream world."

Anto paused as he let that sentence sink it. That last sentence only confirmed Black's previous statement.

"I hate this so much—wait what did you just say?" He looked down on to the giant creature beneath him as he started moving towards a new area.

"Repeating that sentence word for word is a strange request by itself." The guardian admitted.

The boy on the large creature started to make his way towards the head. "No I mean, what did you call yourself?"

There a loud whine that echoed through the void, but it wasn't scary rather it sounded soft despite Anto hearing it.

"I am Totem Whale, your guardian spirit animal." The creature continued with a gentle voice.

That word panged into the young teen's brain. "Animal? … What's an animal?"

Sounds of other creatures echoed and Anto stared out into the void, all the guardians he had seen, the strange Sawsbuck, Ursaring, Noctowl, Bunnelby, Braviary, and Swanna running and flying across the sky surrounding him and the… whale creature.

"It does not matter what we are so long as we protect you, Baker." The large mammal told him.

"Protect me? In case you haven't noticed there's a demon living in my head that turned it into a tropical version of the twilight zone."

The large creature gave out another echoing hum of its soft, soothing noise. "The beast will not harm you as long as we are here, as long as you are alive."

Another word caught the young teen's attention. "Alive?" It escaped him with a strange sense of disbelief. "B-But I'm dead. I…I've been dead for almost a year. H-How can I be alive!?"

He heard the voice of his sister saying he died, he met his remorseful father, he even cut his own body up after being shot in the head and he found out he was still walking! He was some kind of zombie or something, so why did these creatures say he was alive?

"There is a truth that you have forgotten. You must remember it before The Reopening." The strange creature spoke to him.

However, the words made him pause again. "What do you mean save? What truth did I forget? Why are you speaking in half words dang it! That cliché is annoying and doesn't help me in the slightest!" He stopped as the words came out of him by instinct then suddenly flashes of all those times came to his head.

All those times wondering what was going on… he was repeating himself wasn't he?

"I… I'm repeating myself aren't I? No matter how much I claim I have no idea what's going on, I keep asking questions and complaining… I don't even have a clue what's going on anymore." Anto's eyes looked down as he sighed heavily.

The guardian beneath him gave another strange high pitched soothing noise.

"You ask questions because you want to know. You want to know because you care. You care because, despite all this, you want your friends to be safe." The gentle voice spoke as they all flew through a portal and sailed through a sunny sky over a beach island. "In a world where we are left to ourselves, one must find their own answer. I only wish that it would be a kind one from you."

"That… didn't give me another straight answer…"

The Whale landed on the beach sand and Anto motioned himself to jump off. Then he was caught by the Noctowl's wing and let gently into the sand.

"The whole picture will be hard to handle, you must be patient and collect the clues before we can explain why your soul is so important in this plane of existence."

"My soul? Isn't that being devoured by some demon or something? I thought for sure that Fake guy would eat it… where is he anyway?"

"He will not eat your soul for as long we exist. Moreover, he already devoured another soul recently…"

If things were not making sense before, they were becoming even more confusing. "What did you mean by 'he devoured a soul already'?" The child asked again. Just when things looked like they were making sense, more clues came and made things far more confusing to keep track off.

"He already devoured the poor soul of this body."

"But this is my body! And… I still have my soul! … I think…? Wait what!? How could he already eat my soul if I'm still here!?"

"He did not eat your soul." The whale stated simply.

"But you said he ate my soul!"

There was something odd: now the guardians looked confused.

"I do not understand. I told you that we would protect your soul."

"And you also said that he ate my soul!" Anto cried out.

"I did? But he did not eat you."

Anto felt like this conversation was going in circles. The creature did not look like it was messing with him at all. He looked genuine and sincere, so why was it that he was saying two very different things at the same thing?

"Why did you say he devoured the soul of this body!? That's me!" The young boy tiredly screamed.

All the beings looked at him strangely and titled their heads to the side.

"You are the soul of this body?" All of them asked that. All the guardians at the same time asked that question.

"Y-Yes! My name is Anthony Baker, the same name as this body!" The boy screamed but the guardians all still looked at him strangely. "Right?"

That last word escaped him before even he was fully aware.

They all glowed brighter. "It is time to wake up, Baker, soon you will understand who you truly are. I know you are getting restless, but I implore you to be just a little more patient. In due time, who you are shall reveal itself very soon."

* * *

[?]

As the flash died down, Anto woke up to find himself sitting on a table with an ice cream sundae right in front of him in the cafeteria.

He looked around for a moment in confusion before realizing he was back in the Pokémon league. Then he focused back on the ice cream in front of him.

Honestly, nothing was going his way, but it looked like this sundae in front of him would at least temporarily relax him.

Anto picked up the spoon and got ready to indulge himself with sweet sugary goodness.

So why the heck did everything turn dark and suddenly feel like he had a sack placed over him?

Then there was that familiar sensation—the one where when Kryx teleports him to another place.

But for some reason, he couldn't move now.

He felt the bag being removed from his face and quickly noticed something weird.

OK, maybe more than one thing.

Why were all his Pokémon, Tiana, Jamie, Tiana's Pokémon, and Jamie's Pokémon all out and glaring at him?

Jamie's Fletchinder landed on his lap. "**Alright listen here!**" He then slapped him hard with his back wing. "**Nobody messes with Jamie and gets away with it punk!**"

"_What are you talking about? GAK!_" Much to his grief, yet he should have seen this coming, Anto was slapped again.

It was at this moment, the two girls at the back seemingly noticed something.

"**You think you're a wise guy, ey!?**" The fire bird exclaimed before he snapped his feathers.

"_Did you just make a snapping noise with your winRAGK! Ow! Stop slapping me!_" The young boy mentally yelped.

"Um guys?" Tiana's voice died down as Kryx appeared with another odd helmet device.

"**Nice try, fake Anto! Jamie and Tiana warned us about you after a very character driven and emotional trial of learning to trust each other and brought us all together to stop your vicious ways!**"

"_What the heck are you talking about—wait. Did you just say __fake__?_" The word registered into his brain a few seconds after he started talking. That fake self he met in his dream world liked to call himself a fake.

"Wait, everyone!" Jamie spoke out before being drowned out by Ohko of all people.

The blue fighting type pointed dramatically. "**Yeah! With the power of friendship and science, we will brainwash you back until you become your old self!**"

"**Like true heroes do!**" If one was not familiar with this group, they could still point out the Ferrothorn said this particular line.

"**Yeah!**" Sentinel cried out as he started eating the Sundae originally meant for Anto.

"_Hey! I was actually looking forward to that ice cream!_" Anto dealt with a lot of tarous crap, but like heck he'll let someone take his ice cream!

So it came to a bit of a surprise when Anto started struggling harder and everyone heard the sound of wood cracking.

Lily, standing in the corner, recognized something. "**Takezo? Isn't that actually Anto?**"

"**I do not believe this will change what is about to happen.**" Takezo offered her an opened can of nuts while Super Nut dramatically declared to bring down the young tied boy. "**Here, I managed to fool the fake into buying whatever snack I wished before we planned this.**"

"**For a samurai, you're surprisingly deviant.**" Lily took the can and ate some of the food while most of the Pokémon were restraining and trying to slam another metal helmet into Anto's head.

Takezo side stepped one of Sylveon's ribbons that spread out his way when Anto broke the chair and all other Pokémon dog piled on him to stop him from moving. "**My former teacher takes blame for putting more emphasis on the loopholes of the Bushido Code rather than the formalities themselves.**"

"**Huh,**" Lily spoke out as she raised a shield when she saw Sentinel panicking and inhaling ice. "**Sounds progressive.**"

It was then Anto's hotel room was blown up with ice.

[Later]

So long story short, Jamie and Tiana came together with Anto's Pokémon attempting to plan to bring back the real Anto after much explanation and a touching story of trusting their friends.

However, the moment they actually tried to pull of their plan, Jamie and Tiana noticed Anto… was back to normal, yet they couldn't convince their Pokémon and Anto's to stop what they were doing and inevitably freeze over Anto's hotel room. (In hindsight, they probably should have chosen a better place for operations.)

Now against his better Judgment, Anto gathered his friends over that consisted of Wes, Benga, Jamie, Tiana, Black, and White. In a new private area, he tried to explain this lucid and bizarre dreams he's had and eventually brought it down to why he believes that Dimension Enterprise is after him.

"WhoaWhoaWhoaWhoaWhoaWhoa!" Black spoke up as he stood up from his seat. "Are you telling me that somehow, you think there is a demon implanted into your brain!? And that's the reason why Dimension Enterprise is after you? And you found this out because this demon thing turned your subconscious into a personal pocket dimension?! _And_ that there are strange dream creatures in there that told you all of this!?"

"_Well, when you say it like that, you make it sound hard to believe._"

"IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE!" Black yelled. "I mean, seriously!? What kind of god did you tick off in your past life?!"

"_The God of BS apparently._" Anto retorted. "_Unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that there's a demon in my brain!_"

"Huh." Everyone turned to Wes who seemed to be deep. "So that's why the leader of Dimension Enterprise said we were dealing with forces we don't understand. Apparently they're playing with forces beyond our world and Anto here seems to be the byproduct of all that cosmic messing around."

"You seem kind of laid back with all of this…" White noted to the Snagger.

"It's just, when I think things can't get any stranger, they do when I'm with Anto. So at this point, I'm just going to keep an open mind from now on. It'll save me headaches for later when this does get crazier." Wes reclined into his seat.

"What!?" Benga stood up. "Don't you guys understand what this means!? It means that we have the potential to have an epic journey that may span the cosmos! Oh this is so exciting!" The flame haired boy jumped.

"Exciting? How can it get any crazier than this!?" Black yelled out.

Jamie started to sweat. A small part of her wanted to mention that Anto was being sought after by the other strange people/creepy cult. Though, what would happen if she did? Would she reveal that those previous hosts sent her to watch over him? They hadn't exactly told her much except give her a strange stone and follow/care for the one who the stone chose.

Still, the only reason why she got involved with them all in the first place….

Black's Transciever rang at this moment. "Oh wow. It's already Midnight?"

They all looked outside to indeed see the moon already high up in the sky. Anto was shocked. He didn't actually remember what happened to day until everyone told him he had beat Haruto and helped Misoka and Candela.

"Looks like we're putting this on hold. I'll tell Nerd and Headband about this new update." Wes stood up to walk out.

"That reminds me. Who are you up against tomorrow?" Jamie asked, trying to get her mind off the secrets that were very close to being found.

"_Someone named… Victor Montague… he apparently scored high in the Kalos last League Finals._" Anto answered her. He had seen the schedule sometime before everyone got together.

Tiana paled at the name. "Wait, you're against Victor?"

"_You know him?_"

"He's… my sister's boyfriend…"

Anto reacted to that as one would think: his heart stopped beating in fear for a few seconds.

Tiana then placed her hand near her mouth. "Actually, I think I forgot to tell my sister was spending time with you more than her and Victor in this tournament."

The young mute was starting to notice that his dreams were infinitely safer than his reality.

"I… I should go meet with them!" Tiana spoke out before leaving the room in a flustered manner.

The amnesiac paled. He really hoped tomorrow would be a better day.

[…]

"Oh come on!? I just left here!" Anto shouted as he realized he was back in his dream beach.

"Sup, Anthony!" Fake Anto cried out as he was in a sun chair, wearing sunglasses and sipping from another Coconut. "Thanks a bunch for switching with me during that time; I didn't want to be interrogated!"

"How on earth did you take over my body!?" The amnesiac demanded.

"Huh? Why are you asking that? I didn't take over your body. You were just tired and I seized the opportunity to take control."

Anto narrowed his eyes. "That is the same thing."

Fake had a smile across his face. "Is it? See, Anto, when talking to higher beings, pay extra attention to _how_ they talk. You might miss something hidden in plain sight."

"What are you talking about?"

The demon with Anto's body and voice shrugged his shoulders. "Anywho, if you're wondering, I talked with Hoopa a bit and helped him to what he wanted from this Dimension. You might meet him again soon."

Anto rolled his eyes. The guy was trying to change the subject. Getting answers out of him might not be the wisest idea if he confronts him and just demands for it.

But something was tugging at the back of his mind and it suddenly manifested in his mind.

"Why a beach?"

Fake snapped his eyes open and looked to Anto. "Excuse me?"

The young boy turned and looked towards the Ocean. "Why, out of everything, did you turn this part of your dimension into a beach? Sure it's relaxing, but I always thought that beings of power, like yourself, would reside in an area that best suits their personality, like how Angels sit on thrones of white or how demons sit on the piles of their enemies bones. But the fact that you choose to reside in a beach—when you can literally have anything you want—makes me wonder either you are one lazy being…"

Anto turned back with a plain look towards Fake. "Or does this remind you of home?"

For the longest seconds, Fake just stared at Anto without any sign of reaction. He was just frozen.

That was until he spoke up again. "That was a weird thing to say. How do you even know that is from me? Last time we had this conversation, you complained that I was using _your_ brain to make what I wanted." He then went back into sipping his coconut.

However, Anto just smiled as if he had just won a prize. "I now know for sure that you were the one who made this area because of one thing: if I was wrong, you would have just said so honestly, but you said something else to doubt myself."

Fake stopped sipping.

Anto inhaled. "'When talking to higher beings, pay extra attention to _how_ they talk.' Those were your words; I just applied them." Anto finished with a smile.

"… I was wondering how that dimension hopper got along with you so well despite having that type of proud character. You're not conventional." Fake eyed the boy.

"I," Anto recalled his journey so far. "Found out that things aren't always so straight and narrow. Sometimes, a little out of the box thinking seems to work fine or it doesn't. Glad it did this time."

The clone of Anto sighed before standing up and putting his drink down. "Well, knowledge and cleverness were not my forte, so I concede this battle of wits. I'll answer one question for you. You at least deserve that much."

Anto really wanted more than just one question answered. He had a lot to ask like who he really was; did he really eat his soul; how did he come to meet with dimension enterprise; and so on and so forth.

But he didn't get this question for being foolish and rash. He remembered those cosmic Pokémon warning him that what was going on was complicated and that he had to take things slowly. He could ask the big questions, but Fake answering them might not mean he'll understand what he says. He could even lie while that was unlikely.

So how would Anto do this? One free question for someone so mysterious and powerful.

He breathed in deeply before exhaling. "I want you to answer my original question: why did you transform this area into a beach when you could have done anything you want?"

Fake paused. "I was not expecting that. Are you sure?"

One last out. He could probably ask a more sensible question to what Dimension Enterprise is truly after. Still, there was a reason why the young teen was pressing for this particular question.

"Yes. I'm sure."

Fake seemed silent before snapping his fingers. The island suddenly turned to sundown and the two of them were on top of a cliff with Fake standing on the very edge.

"You asked me if I was lazy or it reminded me of home when you made the deduction. You're half right and half wrong." He spoke as he looked on to the artificial sun.

"I'm waiting for you to explain more." Anto folded his arms.

Fake smirked even as his face was turned away from Anto. "For a very long time, I have been thrusted in to battles. After one of my earlier victories, I heard one of my dying enemies whisper about something called a 'beach' and dying as he said something about 'not making it to her'. Looking back, maybe he thought he would live and marry a girl near a beach, but I digress. I wandered for a bit until I found a beach…"

The demon laughed fondly. "I guess that was the first time I felt at peace at the cool breeze, the soothing sound of waves, the gentle light of the sunset, and the way the sand melded to my shape beneath me…" His smile faded. "That was a long time ago, after that I was attacked and ended up fighting again for a very long time until my last one where… I'm getting off topic."

He turned around towards Anto. "So yeah. The beach does remind me of home, the small part that actually seemed to make an impact on me. I do like it here, but I didn't know it was making me lazy." He smiled and folded his arms. "There. Your question has been answered."

…

…

One would think it weird that something as obscure as this would answer anything.

For Anto, it was more than enough. The mute smiled at his fake. "Thanks. You're… a lot nicer than I thought you would be."

That seemed to catch the demon of guard. "Huh, you're the very first person to say that. Too bad you'll die when I regain my full power."

"I won't deny that, but then again, what happens if I survive it?"

It was at this moment that Anto noticed that he was starting to fade, in other words he was starting to wake up again.

Fake spoke up with a smirk. "I think you'll figure something out if you do."

With that, Anto woke back up on his bed.

For once, he was well rested.

* * *

It was early morning when Anto awoke, so he decided to go train with his partners.

"_So does everyone know the plan? And no one will try and assume I'm evil and attack me?_" He narrowed his eyes at his Pokémon.

"**We shall not! For as fellow heroes, we must also protect you from turning into the dark side with all our might!**" Super Nut declared while he was out in the balcony shouting out the window.

Anto ran out and dragged Super Nut back in as other balcony doors started opening and demanding someone to shut up their Pokémon.

"_Glad we all agree._" He dropped Super Nut into a couch as he started walking towards the exit. "_Now who wants some foo—_"

Yet when he opened the door, the first thing he saw was amethyst eyes staring right at him.

"_Tiana?_" Anto asked as he took a look at her with her hand up as if she was about to knock on his door. She was wearing a mini jean shorts, long brown combat boots, a blue long sleeves shirt, and another white wool beret with a blue Poké Ball symbol to the side.

"… _You uh… you look nice today._" He said as smooth as sandpaper.

All his Pokémon behind him gathered to see what would transpire.

Still, the compliment made the black haired girl giggle with a tint of red on her face.

Anto then looked at himself wearing the same clothes he had ever since he started his journey. "_You know, I just realized you change your clothes a lot whenever I see you._"

"I'm surprised you wear the same set of clothes every day, but surprisingly…" She leaned in and sniffed him. "You always smell like berries."

"_Well Takezo showed me that there are berries I can use to clean up and dry my clothes. It happened one time he stripped me—_" The young boy's brown eyes became the size of saucers after he realized what he had just said.

"Takezo, the Patrat, stripped you?"

"**He smelled stinky and had this disgusting goo all over him.**" The comment from the small Samurai was _not_ helping.

And Anto had such a good morning too!

"_N-No! I mean yes! Actually no! It-It's not what you think! You see, I was used as a human handkerchief by a guy I'm sure was born with muscle steroids—_"

Now Tiana was full on laughing at him. Fantastic.

"Oooh… ooh I needed that." Tiana gasped after a good laugh. "You just made my morning."

"_That makes one of us._" Sometimes he wished he was being funny on purpose that got people to laugh at him.

The male trainer wasn't expecting his hand to be grabbed by her. "Come on! I'll treat you to breakfast."

"_Huh? Wha—_"Anto did get much to say as she dragged him out of the room.

All of the young trainer's Pokémon stared.

It wasn't until a few more seconds that Kryx floated up suddenly and dramatically pointed in the direction where the two left.

"**It's the human courting ritual! Quick my fellow scientists, initiate plan Eloping!**"

"**Oh tight! I actually trained for this!**" Ohko declared before he, Sentinel, Super Nut and Kryx jumped off the balcony Super Nut was screaming out of a while ago.

One would start to wonder if Anto's Pokémon were clinically insane at this rate…

Lily and Takezo stayed behind in a bit in shock. (Mostly Lily though.)

The two looked at each other before shrugging. Then after closing the door, they too jumped out of the window after their fellow party like normal people would.

[...]

"_Not that I'm not grateful, but is there a reason why you wanted to meet me so early? We could have met at lunch._" Anto asked as he and Tiana were sharing an outside table near a somewhat empty and recluse area since both Amnesiac and the Kalosian girl's Pokémon were out on the field wrecking their own havoc.

The raven haired girl sighed. "Is it really that obvious?"

"_Uhhh no?_" Anto shifted his eyes to the side then bit on to his blue berry bagel sandwich with eggs and bacon.

"Thanks, but I got into another fight with my sister," She spoke out a little sadly. Anto quickly apologized, but she just shook her head. "She doesn't like me spending so much time with you and the others."

"_She sounds very over protective…_"

"She is… and… can you keep a secret?"

Anto responded by making a motion on his lips as if he was zipping it up and throwing away the zipper.

"Oh right." She giggled softly. "Well it's just. I… I was in a coma, but my sister blames herself for it and I later found out that she did some things to make sure I got out of that coma. She looks out for me a lot not only because she cares, but I think she's afraid that I'll be put into another coma."

She looked at her reflection in her drink somberly. "The doctors told me that I was lucky to come out of my Coma unscathed, but that wasn't really true. I may not have suffered mental defects, but I did suffer a lot of emotional ones. When I woke up, I found out most of my friends just… moved on without me. Some even assumed I was dead… it was like I really did die and got brought into a strange new world."

"_I'm so sorry about that._" Anto admitted.

"Even though I argued with my sister about her being aggressive in making me come along with her, the truth was that I did want to leave Kalos as well. I felt like a stranger in my own home and the only people that understood me… they weren't really there for me." She then looked to Anto with a smile. "Then I met you. Someone… who probably has it even worse than me, yet… you always look so happy. How do you do that?"

She looked at Anto with honest eyes.

He gave her answer. He just shrugged his shoulders about it. "_I-I don't know._"

Tiana laughed a little sadly this time. "Yeah, I don't understand either."

"_It's not all bad. You do at least still have your sister. She'll be there for you. And hey, look at you now: I'm your friend, and my friends are your friends too._" Anto tried to cheer her up. He didn't know much, but he didn't really like seeing his friends mope.

Huh, was that how he looked whenever he moped?

A small but honest smile came on her face as she heard that. "Thanks Anto." Her smile quickly turned into a frown though.

"Actually… there's another reason I had to grab you before anyone else could." The stylish girl admitted.

The trainer titled his head. What did she mean by that?

"It's about Jamie."

"As much as I appreciate a fun date as the next guy," A new person suddenly walked up to their table and put his hand on it to face Tiana. "I think it's time came back, Tiana."

He was obviously around his late teens if not twenty at most. His face was fairly handsome while he had light brown eyes with jet black hair that grew to mid length. He was wearing long, baggy, cargo pants with sneakers and a black shirt with one vertical white stripe.

Anto was confused until Tiana huffed and folded her arms. "I don't care, Mr. Montague!"

"Hey, it's Victor and you know it. You also know I hate it when my two favorite women fight."

Amethyst colored eyes were beautiful, but Tiana could make them look scary with her glare towards the older teen right now. "You only hate it because Trinity kicks you out of the room to brood and you've got nowhere to go."

"Hey now! That's not _all_ true…" Victor rubbed his head sheepishly.

Anto, feeling ignored, wanted to contribute to the conversation. "_Also this isn't a date._"

That sure caught Victor's attention as he suddenly backed off a few steps and stared towards Anto. It occurred to the mute he was really used to speaking with this telepathic ability of his.

"T-tha freaked me out, man! Not everyone can use telepathy!" The older teen/young adult pointed before walking closer to the boy and getting a good look at him. "Huh. Tiana, I thought you would have better tastes than this."

Anto threw his hands up in the air. Was that _really_ necessary!?

Despite her red face, Tiana still looked ticked. "W-Why are you even here in the first place? Shouldn't you be preparing for your match that you're going to lose?"

"What? I can totally beat a toddler like that Anto kid!" Victor managed spoke out. "I just was on my way to call an old friend when I spotted you with this… familiar looking kid… have we met, psychic kid?"

Anto narrowed his eyes. "_Hi. I'm Anto. And I am not a toddler._"

"Oooohh. Awkward." He winced before quickly putting up a joking smile. "But I was kidding! I heard about your battles, you've got some pretty strong Pokémon. And weirdly enough, I'm just surprised someone as young as you can make it this far in the league."

"There are people who make it to the league at ten years old, Victor." Tiana grumpily corrected.

"Yeah but they never win." Victor pointed out before looking towards the phones. "So anyway, I'm going to make a call to Tadashi and I'll definitely see you two later."

With that, Victor left them both with different feelings.

"_Sooooo that was your sister's boyfriend?_" Anto asked.

Tiana buried her flushed face into her hands and wished she was dead. "Yes…"

"_Okay then, umm what were you trying to say before he interrupted us?_"

"Yo! Mute! There you are!"

"Ahh Anto! I finally want to try a Synergy Burst Battle once more!"

Leave it to Wes and Benga to keep coming in awkward times.

Tiana sighed before standing up. "I'll tell you later. Good luck on your match, Anto. I hope you win!"

Wes whistled as Tiana left. "Man Anto, you sly dog, you've been holding out on us."

"_Wes, I am just friends with people who happen to be cute girls that I find attractive. There is nothing more to this than just hanging out._"

The silver haired boy smirked. "Dude, you're like too easy to read when it comes to girls." He nudged the boy with his elbow.

Anto groaned.

Benga blinked before 'whispering' to Anto. "So… can we battle now?"

The amnesiac started banging his head on the table.

[Later]

"Ladies and gentlemen! I give to you one of our most unpredictable, but nonetheless entertaining, trainer, Anto!" Guyver cried out as the young teen walked out to a scream of fans with a humble wave.

High in the stands, a young girl with blonde hair and light blue eyes was motioning to her parents. "Come on, Mom and Dad! We're going to miss it!"

"Caitlin! Slow down, you know your father gets winded very easily!" An older woman who also had blonde hair and light blue eyes lightly scolded before her daughter and Haunter went ahead anyway.

Her husband then came up gasping a bit.

"Simon, tell me again why we're watching someone with the same exact face as our dead son?" She asked her loving husband.

"Well, I mean, he just looks and has a similar name to our son, Yana. Nothing more than that. And Caitlin seems to look up to him. It could be just like—you know—maybe we can pretend that it's our son out there beating some of the best trainers in the world."

"… But our son is dead. He… isn't our son." Yana softly said.

Simon loving took his wife's hand and calmly stroked it. "I know. I know. We aren't replacing our son, but we do have to move on. Who knows? Maybe his doppelganger is secretly doing this for Anthony, and up there our son is cheering him on like our daughter."

Yana seemed a little hesitant.

"I know you loved to battle. I know it's pretend, but pretending isn't always a bad thing. It's part of my job as an actor anyway." Simon smiled kindly.

True, it was not her son. But maybe, just maybe if she just pretended for a minute that he was her lost son… "I suppose you're right. That boy better win. I did not come all this way to watch him lose."

Meanwhile, in Hoenn, two people were watching a television screen in their hotel room.

"So here comes Victor's next fight… and it's with a kid." A beautiful girl with chocolate colored locks with eyes of a greyish-green color said as she put down the remote and sat on the bed.

A handsome and toned young man with dirty blonde hair and emerald colored eyes walked into the room with nothing but pants and a towel he was using to wipe his head. (Not that the girl was complaining.) "Hey, that kid fought against two people, one who had mega evolution over him, and still won."

"If Victor loses though, we're totally holding it against him. Aren't we, Tadashi?" The girl gave a cat like grin.

"Definitely, Clarice."

Back in the fight, the two contestants were told the rules. This round and from then on will all be 6 on 6 Pokémon battles.

Here was where people made it or break it.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Guyver cried out as the battle was officially started.

The two trainers threw their Pokémon out.

**{Author Notes}**

**Sorry to end on a cliff hanger, but a six on six battle would be too long to put.**

**Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to my good friend, Mangolime Pie and one of that account's earliest Pokémon fics, "Flames of Revolution."**

**Most of the main characters there cameo in this story because we're buddies and I thought it was a good way to show how much Anto has grown as a battler to fight against trainers who went through their hardships.**

**Also, some new insight into the dreamscape! Seems like the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper. Trust me, when I first wrote how this was going to work, I was afraid that this would be too convoluted and over complicated.**

**Wait. It technically is.**

**Huh. Well for those that can somehow keep up with all this strange details, I have looked over the overall explanation and it should make sense… in a very sci-fi heavy sorta way…**

**Still, we finally see Caitlyn, Anthony Baker's sister back from Mistralton City is in the league with her parents! They seem to be rooting for the boy that looks like their son.**

**Also, get ready. The tournament is soon coming to a close and out will come one of the chapters I've been waiting so long to write!**

**Peace out dudes!**


	49. Ep 49: Flames from a Revolution PT 2

[Yesterday]

He would say it as straight as possible.

Unova was different from Orre. Though, anyone with more than two brain cells can tell you it was Orre that was the 'stain' in this beautiful world.

He stood out like a sore thumb. He probably could say he had a magnetic personality, but having a wise cracking, sarcastic follower does rub off on you after some time.

He looked at his reflection and simply thought to himself he really was hard to miss. He was a hulking body builder and almost eight feet tall for crying out loud. Not to mention the fact his mustache was just as long and almost unreasonable compared to all the styles he was seeing so far.

The air was not dry, and the sun wasn't scorching hot. The pleasant weather felt so foreign to him.

However, there was one amazing perk he had while he was walking smack dab in the middle of the street where kids pointed at him and people were staring.

He smiled.

Unova had no idea who Team Snaggem were.

But by the end of the week, the world will know their name.

Gonzap would make sure of that. Now then... where is Wes?

[Present Time.]

The two attacks clashed with musical clatter before the two humanoid Pokémon were pushed away from the impact.

M.C. Guyver cried out as he pointed up to air. "What an amazing battle folks! The two trainers started off with fighting Pokémon! For Victor, his fierce Medicham, and for Anto, he's using his infamous one armed Sawk!"

The fighting types were really living up to their type as they would always move into close quarters of each other. Victor's Medicham punched forward, but Sawk spun to the side which turned into a set up for a reverse hook kick towards the side of his opponent's head. The dual type quickly retracted his arm to defend his head, yet it didn't stop the blow from connecting and send him hard and sliding on the ground from a heavy impact.

Victor narrowed his eyes. It looked like the Sawk was more experienced in close quarter combat than his Pokémon even if he only had one hand. The Kalos trainer commanded his Pokémon to use Psycho Cut and the dual type complied by swiping his hand in the air quickly which shot out a slash of psychic energy that slammed into Ohko and knocked him back a few feet before he back flipped mid air and landed with a slide.

That didn't stop Medicham from firing wave after wave of Psycho Cuts towards the fighting type. Ohko started running as he avoided each cut and gathered energy around his palm as he ran. The opposing dual type spun before unleashing a large horizontal wave of psionic energy towards the running fighting type. Ohko saw this and slid down to avoid the wave and as soon as it passed by, he jumped up and threw a light blue Focus Blast on the ground—freezing the floor beneath Medicham. The fighting and psychic type was surprised and made a step, which unfortunately turned into a slip because the ground quickly lost traction.

The Sawk quickly fired another Focus Blast that was colored yellow and hit the fallen Medicham dead on with a powerful shock and explosion.

Medicham flew into the air and eventually landed on his knee with electricity sparking around him.

Victor knew that Medicham was out matched in this fight. However there was one more thing he was going to try.

This was the moment he surprised everyone by making his Pokémon use Fire Punch on the frozen ground. A heat wave spread out that turned the ice into water then Victor commanded his Pokémon to use psychic together all the water and shoot it like a whip towards Ohko. The one armed fighting type was told to avoid the attack and did so at first try. However, the psychic continued on and made the water trap Ohko's leg while elongating it to the point where it looked like one giant water whip.

Medicham quickly placed his fist in the water and used Thunder Punch, making the shock travel quickly from the water into Ohko.

However, fighting through the pain, the fighting type quickly launched an ice Focus Blast and froze the whip before quickly breaking it off.

Medicham broke through his end as well and launched another Psycho Cut at the recently freed Sawk. Ohko couldn't move fast enough in time; instead he raised his hand out with another Ice Focus Blast as the attack made impact with his orb. Instead of exploding, like most were expecting, the Psycho Cut was frozen solid and caught by Ohko's one arm.

The single armed Pokémon smiled as he quickly tossed the frozen cut up in the air then kicked it right back towards the psychic type. Medicham stood his ground and broke through the frozen ice cut. However, as soon as it was shattered, the one armed Sawk was seen right in front of the Medicham before unleashing a powerful blow into his stomach, then following through and launching the fighting type into a wall on the other side of the stadium.

The crowd cheered as the first match went to Anto.

"Wow. You're Pokémon are really something." Victor admitted as he recalled his first Pokémon. "But I've faced tougher opponents before!"

He quickly took out a red Poké Ball and threw it to the sky. What came out was a Venasuar with a fancy necklace tied around its large neck.

The mighty Kanto starter roared, which made Anto recall his fighting type. Pausing for a second, Anto then reached for his Dusk Ball and threw it up into the air.

Sentinel came into the battlefield and Victor wasted no time in mega evolving the Kanto starter.

However, in the blinding light of Mega Evolution, Sentinel disappeared into thin air.

"Well will you look at that folks!? It seems that during the light show, Anto's strange ghost Pokémon has vanished! Where could he have gone?"

"What I would give to be an Aura user right about now…" Victor looked around the field quickly but saw nothing out of the ordinary except for Anto's determined smile.

The young boy pointed his hand out, and Sentinel appeared right in front of Mega Venasuar with his mouth seemingly frozen along the edges—

The Delta Pokémon unleashed the Frost Breath attack at point blank range, encasing the Mega in frozen air.

Victor then ordered Growth, showing that even frozen, Mega Venasuar was still able to move and suddenly break free of the ice prison.

"Mega Venasuar gains the ability of Thick fat which reduces fire and ice attacks," Victor told Anto. "And Growth rapidly increases Attack and Special Attack stats! Use Sludge Bomb!"

Mega Venasaur unleashed a large bubble of poison that exploded on the Torren Pokémon's area and quickly used Phantom Force to avoid the hit and jump out of the way of the explosion.

The Kalos trainer knew that in terms of mobility, he was out classed especially with the Ghost Pokémon's ability of fading away to avoid hits. So it stood to reason to take away that mobility and he knew how. He ordered his Mega to cover the area with as much sludge as possible except for the center of the field and his boosted Venasuar did as he was told, filling the arena with poisonous sludge everywhere.

Seeing the area poisoned, gave Anto an idea as well. Sentinel appeared once more but in the center of the field like Victor anticipated. But before the Kalosian could call an attack, Sentinel unleashed another empowered Frost Breath right on the liquid poison on the ground and freezing it solid.

It was then that victor called out Frenzy Plant, causing giant thorns to uproot from the ground and swarm towards the Ghost Dragon type. The tendrils followed the delta wherever he tried to run to. He tried to Phantom Force right on top of a vine coming to stab him and run on top of it, but another vine came from the side and blinded him into the attack.

The vines all swarmed towards the captured Delta Pokémon, but Anto noticed that his Synergy Gauge was finally full and quickly activated Synergy Burst. A rainbow aura cloaked over Sentinel before a powerful burst warded away the vines.

Sentinel landed on the ground and then Specter Step(ped) right in front of Mega Venasuar with a Shadow Ball attack.

Mega Venasuar acted fast and fired another Sludge Bomb at the attack, causing the two to collide in a powerful explosion. However, something cut through the attack and Sentinel appeared with his fusion move of Dragon Claw and Shadow Claw unleashed as he made a run towards the mega, nimbly circling the bulky grass type and performing powerful swipes to keep his enemy guessing.

"Use Frenzy Plant beneath you!" Victor shouted as his mega quickly made the giant roots sprout violently beneath him and Sentinel. It suddenly made the Delta lose footing as he was launched into the air. However, the weight of the stage two Pokémon and the fact that he controlled some of the vines to keep him tethered to the roots which made the grass type stay on top.

Quickly, Mega Venasuar fired a Sludge Bomb at the airborne Pokémon. Sentinel flailed in the Sky but also blasted a powerful Shadow Ball towards the attack. However, the Delta's attack missed the Sludge Bomb and nailed him in the sky, but while the attack missed his intended target, the Shadow Ball flew right into Mega Venasuar with a deafening boom.

As everyone covered themselves from the blast, the cameras picked up both Pokémon falling from the sky and both of them losing their power ups due to a double knock out.

Victor started to sweat. He never expected something like that! "Synergy Burst was it? I didn't know there was something like that in the world!"

"_Tell that to Ferrum Region._" Anto linked to the older young man as both of them withdrew their fallen Pokémon.

Both of them threw out their next Pokémon: a Crawdaunt for Victor and Kryx for Anto.

Victor smiled. He chose a dark type against a psychic—why was that Elgyem eyes glowing like Christmas lights? Wait. He knew that move.

Victor recognized Miracle Eye the second before Kryx promptly used Psychic on his Crawduant and swung him across the field and slammed him into the ground like a rag doll.

"Bubblebeam!"

The dark water type held strong as he slipped his limb out and fired a burst of rapid moving bubbles from his claw towards Kryx. The alien quickly moved in the air to avoid the stream of water.

"Fine then! Crawduant, use Dragon Dance!"

"_Uh oh._"

Kryx wasn't able to pin down her enemy in time as the evolved Pokémon finished his set up move and quickly avoided the telekinetic blast.

The dark type moved fast, avoiding Kryx's attempt to pin him down while firing his own bubble beam in unpredictable angles, making Kryx use evasive maneuvers.

It came to the point where the psychic used her telekinesis to freeze all the bubbles around her then fire them all out in a wide spread area.

Victor smiled as it meant that the psychic type was finally in one spot and quickly he ordered his Crawdaunt to use Aqua Jet and blast off from the ground with boosted speed. The water type, blasted through the spread attack and stopped his attack right in front of Kryx. Caught off guard, Kryx was shocked long enough for the speed boosted Crawdaunt to use Knock Off and slam the psychic type hard into the ground.

The small psychic ended up fainting from the super effective blow and evened up the score.

Anto recalled his fainted Pokémon and started to think. He then reached for a Poké Ball and brought out Lily into the field. The grass type was actually wearing the choice specs on her head, but she wasn't actually using it yet. Though, all she had to do was push the specs down and she'd be able to increase her long ranged attacks.

As the battle began again, Victor tried to capitalize Crawduant's boosted stats, making the dual type move faster than Lily could keep track with her eyes.

But Anto brought out the grass type for a reason.

No matter how fast someone was, you can't beat the speed of light.

When Crawdaunt closed in, he wasn't expecting his pray to shine brightly like a sun right in front of him and blinding him and many people, except Anto.

Victor rubbed his eyes after the light and slowly his vision was coming back to him. Yet for some reason, his eyes were trying to tell him it was still bright. Was that Lilligant still using Flash? But what was that sound—

Victor's eyes focused.

"Crawdaunt, get out of there!"

The Dark Type's eyes finally adjusted the minute Victor said that. However, he noticed that there was an Energy Ball charging right in front of him—oh.

Lily, wearing the Choice Specs, let loose the Energy Ball at point blank range. The blast sent the water and dark type crashing into the wall and bouncing off it. After that, the shiny Pokémon motioned her Choice Specs upward back to the top of her head.

"_A bit ruthless, don't you think Lily?_" Anto asked with a little sweat.

The grass type looked back at him. "**I have a lot of pent up anger. Just call this stress relief.**"

It was at this point Anto was starting to consider if he should start searching for Pokémon therapists, considering all his Pokémon's quirks.

Meanwhile…

She stared at the screen, specifically the beautiful grass type that just defeated her friend's pokemon. "Tadashi, I want a Lilligant."

That wasn't a statement for Clarice, when she wanted something, she usually got it. Tadashi sweat dropped with how focused the beautiful girl was. She wasn't just entranced with the beauty and power of the Pokémon, but Clarice seemed especially attracted to that ruthlessness in battle just now.

He silently prayed to Arceus that not all Lilligants were like that.

Back in Unova, Victor felt intimidated by the small and supposedly cute grass type. Honestly, the Pokémon gave off an eerily familiar aura that screamed she was superior to you… wait a second…

Victor shook his head before reaching for his next Pokémon, Alakazam with another ornate necklace around him.

"He has more than one Mega?" Benga from the seats up on the stage asked out loud.

Everyone looked to Tiana. "Yeah, he has more than one Mega Pokémon. I think he has one more besides that one, but hasn't Anto battled more than three Mega's before?"

"That was only because his Pokémon had better teamwork and coordination. On a one versus one? That's a little different." Wes explained.

Quickly the match started, and Victor wasted no time in mega evolving his Alakazam once more. Anto commanded Lily to quickly use Quiver Dance.

Lily stared down the Mega Alakazam, who was now floating mid air and levitating. Then he launched a devastating telekinetic blast to his opponent who shielded herself in a dome of Magical Leaves.

The two attacks collided and the Mega was surprised that his telekinesis was not moving the pile of leaves.

"That's the first time I've seen a psychic unable to stop a non-dark type move." Jamie noticed.

"I think it's because Magical Leaf has its own unique energy, even among other types, that would be hard for a psychic to grasp or overpower." Tiana commented.

Back in the fight, Victor changed his tactics, telling his Pokémon to use Dazzling Gleam to break through the barrier.

The blinding light blasted the dome, but as it faded away, the pile of leaves scattered and formed into a dozen leaf clones of the Lilligant.

"Well I'll be a Mankey's Uncle…" Victor looked around the clones before all of them started to attack with Magical Leaves. Mega Alakazam teleported to avoid the leaves, but each time he would dodge, the leaves would form back into a clone and another would attack, disorienting everyone from trying to track where the real Lilligant was.

"It's just unfair how I'm the only guy in my friend's group without powers." The Kalosian muttered before he commanded Alakazam to teleport up high. The Mega did so and seemingly surrounded himself in a psychic shield before meditating.

Anto recognized that the Alakazam was using Calm Mind, and planning to boost up to the point he could just wipe out all the leaf clones on the battle field. To counter that, Lily started using Quiver Dance more and more.

Wes's eyes widened. "Okay that looks kinda dangerous."

Guyver also noticed the amount of energy both Pokémon were building up and this one was surely going to affect the audience with more than a heavy dust explosion. "Stay Calm folks! The stands are equipped with forcefields in case of such an emergency!" He told them as a reflective shield started covering over the stands.

Anto and Victor noticed this then they realized they were both left out in the open from the rather massive amount of power both Pokémon were planning to unleash.

"_I-I think we've powered up enough._" Anto looked over to Victor.

"You do realize you sound exactly like my subconscious right now? Except, smaller, and going through puberty…" He shivered. "Oh those were such dark days."

Unfortunately for the trainers, while they were having this conversation, both of their Pokémon charged up to the fullest.

Mega Alakazam charged a lot of psionic energy while Lily impressively brought the largest Energy Ball in the least amount of time possible above her. She quickly put on her Choice Specs, effectively doubling the size of the large green orb of grass energy.

Then they both fired.

"_Oh snap—_" "Son of a—"

***We are Experiencing Technical difficulties. Please stand by.***

[Elsewhere]

"I never would have expected you to lose so… spectacularly. Even in Sinnoh, your defeat was at the hands of legendary Pokémon, I don't seem to know how something like _this_ came to be."

Hunter J had only tasted defeat a few times in her life. She utterly loathed each one of them, yet the worst part about this one was that she was partially to blame for this mishap.

"Still, if you need any resources, we will give them out to you so long as they are reasonable." Her client offered from the other side of this video chat.

She supposed she should be thankful for some mercy in that her client was more leveled headed than most pig-headed black market dealers. However, it was also why she didn't quite trust him.

"Why do you want this child captured so badly?" It came out of her mouth out of confusion than a demand like she wanted.

"… The child is the key to unleashing a long forgotten power that was meant to be locked away and forgotten. If he isn't stopped soon, I pale at the destruction that will be unleashed on to the world."

[Back in the League]

With how much smoke was rising from the arena, one would think that a small nuke went off.

It was amazing how much destruction and chaos that followed Anto where ever he went. Sometimes he wondered if this was really the work of Fake, or _he_ himself was causing this all by simply existing.

Thankfully, before Lily and Mega Alakazam managed to unleash their full power, Anto ducked for cover and threw himself to the ground, even though it shook rather hard from the shockwave the two Pokémon performed.

Anto stood up to see if victor was alright. If anything happened to him, Tiana might get upset. And if she was upset… her horrifying sister would come through the bowels of the earth's crust and torture him in the darkest pits of hell fire for harming her lover and worrying her sister!

"_VICTOR, WAKE UP! I DON'T WANNA DIE AGAIN!?_" That last word came out subconsciously before he realized he couldn't actually die, which was worse in that she could torture him for eternity—oh Arceus he was really starting to hate his life.

Victor clutched his head as he came back up. "W-What? Dude, that creeps me out!"

As the dust finally settled, they both noticed that their two Pokémon were both out cold on the ground.

"Well I guess this means you're still in the lead," Victor recalled in Alakazam which made Anto bring back Lily. "But that's the only thing I'm letting you have! Go, Chesnaught!"

Another Grass starter? Anto was confused as the mighty Pokémon came out. Chesnaughts were very bulky fighters, though Anto had just realized that he had already lost all three of his better long range fighters.

It was then he threw Ohko back into the field.

"**I'm here to kick some hands!**"

Anto face palmed.

"Gyro Ball!" To both Ohko and his trainer's surprise, the Kalos starter curled up into a ball and started rolling very fast to Ohko like a boulder. Ohko fired a Focus Blast, yet the attack bounced off the fast moving shell and exploded to the side.

"_Well that's new._" Anto noted as the grass type ran through Ohko, tossing him up in the air from the attack. The boy acted fast before telling Ohko to fire an ice Focus blast on to the ground again when the fighting grass type came rolling back at him for a second round.

Even though the ground was iced, the younger boy recalled that there were spikes on this Pokémon's shell like back, meaning that even with the ice it still kept its traction.

Ohko tried attacking the moving Pokémon this time. However, it worked as well as the Focus Blast did in that it didn't work at all. Ohko was knocked into the air before Chesnaught finally stopped rolling, jumped up, placed both his hands together and Wood Hammered the fighting type back into the ground with another crater to add onto the field.

As the dust died down, Ohko was seen knocked out cold.

"You're going to have trouble with this one. I started with Chesnaught first!" Victor declared as he folded his arms proudly.

Anto was in a bit of a bind. Takezo and Super Nut did not seem like good match ups against this Pokémon.

Anto threw out his Poké ball to bring out Takezo. He had another Synergy Burst recharged from the past fighting, but he wanted to save this one if the opportunity showed itself.

Again, Victor commanded his Pokémon to use Gyro Ball and run at the small normal type. However, while he figured that the Patrat was special, he was not expecting the common normal Pokémon to be easily evading his speeding Chesnaught.

That was the fastest normal type he ever saw! And he wasn't even evolve—wait. He's wearing a Choice Scarf. That makes more sense… still… Choice Scarves multiply speed. The normal type obviously had a good base speed if it was keeping a safe distance from Chesnaught without looking a bit tired.

Anto's plan was simple. Even for Super Nut, he couldn't spin forever, so he hoped as soon as the Kalos starter got tired of chasing, he could attack.

Eventually, it did work. The rolling Pokémon was slowing down and eventually came to a stop as it stood up groggily.

This was the chance Anto and Takezo took to strike at the disoriented evolved Pokémon.

"Use Spiky Shield!" Victor's voice boomed out as a spiked force field popped around the grass type that made the smaller Pokémon crash into the kinetic shield and be violently thrown back.

"_You've got to be kidding me._" Anto paled as he recalled Spiky Shield was a much more viable version of Protect in that physical attacks get rebounded to the attacker if they made contact with the shield.

Chesnaught followed through with that and hit Takezo with a Drain Punch to smack him like a rag doll to the side. The small Pokémon flew, but still held on even from a heavy blow. However, he fell to his knees and struggled to stay up.

The Kalos grass type wasted no time and followed up with another fighting type move on the weakened normal type.

However, Takezo's eyes snapped open with one eye glowing blue and one glowing pink. With amazing speed, Takezo avoided the fist and suddenly Chesnaught fell asleep.

"You've got to be kidding me!? What was that!?" Victor cried out.

"**Why do we forget we have that move?**" Takezo asked as he quickly removed his scarf at the same time as performing a Swords Dance.

"_I thought we stopped using the Hypno Eyes move because it requires direct eye contact and it only works for like ten seconds at its best._" Anto noted as Chesnaught started waking up. He then pressed his Battle AR to activate Synergy Burst. "_Hit him hard before he can put up a shield!_"

The burst of light surrounded Takezo as he quickly tied the scarf around his neck and in a blink smashed his blade into Chesnaught's stomach, dealing a heavy blow and pushing the bigger grass type back.

It was at this moment that the Grass type planted his feet into the ground to prevent himself from moving further.

Through sheer will, the grass type grabbed Takezo and basically slammed him into the ground—as if there weren't enough craters in the battle field already.

The rainbow Aura dissipated and Takezo was knocked out from that last blow.

"Oh no…" Tiana spoke up as Anto only had one Pokémon left compared to Victor's two Pokémon. "I know what Victor's last Pokémon is even if Anto does defeat Chesnaught."

"Which Pokémon is it?" Jamie asked.

"… A Mega Salamance."

Wes placed a palm on his head. "Is anyone else having Hunter J flash backs?"

"Me." "She scared me." Benga and Jamie spoke out respectively.

Anto sweat dropped as he threw Super Nut out. The smaller in height steel type boasted about he was here to save the day and it cheered up the boy a little, but none of Super Nut's current moveset, even including Fusion moves would do much to this Pokémon.

The match continued and Anto quickly ordered Super Nut to get in the air by throwing out the Stealth Rocks and some of the Leech Stones.

Victor wondered what those green rocks were, but told Chesnaught to the Gyro Ball technique once more.

Inwardly, the young black haired boy panicked. How was he going to beat that with his last Pokémon?!

Super Nut slung to the top of the floating boulders, but Chesnaught bounced up while rolling.

However, something strange happened after Super Nut saw this and easily dodged the attack. When Chesnaught hit the boulder, his rolling speed broke the boulder and he ended up bouncing back down on the ground. Then the Kalos starter quickly got back up and shook his head before looking back up at Super Nut… who still was monologuing…

Anto stared at that little thing after the attack.

Then a smile spread on his lips.

He just found something to help his battle out.

Super Nut was given his orders, but he looked somewhat confused as he heard them. None the less, he quickly went on the ground and had one of his vines clamp into the rocks above him. Then the steel type smashed the rock on his fighting type enemy right on top of him.

Despite all the hits it has taken, the Kalos Pokémon looked more annoyed than hurt from that and quickly tried to close the distance with another Gyro Ball. Super Nut jumped towards the floating platforms and once more the fighting grass type Pokémon gave chase and jump up while still in ball form.

The result was the same as the first time where Chesnaught's spinning broke the rock where Super Nut just ran away from.

After seeing his Pokémon crash again, Victor commanded his fighting Pokémon to just jump on the rock and chase after Super Nut.

However, the moment he jumped in to the air, Super Nut used a Power Whip to latch onto the boulder that Chensaught was about to jump on and yanked it away like someone playing tug of war. This made the fighting type jumping up… with nothing to land on and went back falling down at the same pace!

Chesnaught grunted after crashing back down and slowly got up.

Victor was surprised by this. He wasn't expecting someone younger than him to use the high ground to this extent of making Chesnaught unable to touch his enemy. He also had to admit this was one unique way of making use of Stealth Rocks. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to switch out right now in the middle of a battle otherwise he would have switch out right about now.

Unfortunately for the young man from Kalos, Anto's Ferrothorn was now on the offensive in that it was using boulders from the sky and continued to send them down like hammers onto his Pokémon. Individually they didn't seem to hurt, but slowly they were piling up with no way for Chesnaught to stop or counter attack.

The older teen ordered his crass type to use Spiky Shield in order to hold off the assault of rocks being pelted at his Pokémon and somehow figure out a way out of this mess.

That would have been what he did if Anto hadn't already put _his _plan to motion.

The boulders kept being pulled, thrown, and slung right towards the immobile Pokémon on the ground whether it was big or small, it just had to be constant because the longer the forcefield was up… the easier it was to fail.

And fail it did which Anto quickly ordered his last Pokémon to crash down on top of him like a meteor after firing himself from a self sling shot.

Out of the dust cloud, Super Nut rolled out and stood over at Anto's side of the battlefield. However, Chesnaught was seen unconscious on the ground.

The crowd cheered after this fight. Everyone was getting excited as the two trainers were both down to their last Pokémon.

Victor found himself laughing. He's had his fair share of close calls and high stakes battles. However, he found himself doing something he wasn't expecting to do in this battle: he was smiling like an utter loon.

It was actually… fun to battle with this younger teen. Watching his Pokémon do things that not even powerful trainers could pull off as easily as him and his Pokémon could was entertaining and exciting. He always wanted to push himself and his opponent; he wanted to see what other thing the boy had under his sleeves.

He hadn't felt this excited when he was five years old on Christmas morning. Victor grabbed his last Pokémon. "There's no way you're winning, Anto! Come on out Salamance!"

It was at this time, Victor brought out a powerful Salamance that roared proudly in the air after being called.

Anto's eye twitched before he shook his head. "_Whoa! Totally had a flash back to Hunter J just now. Really hopping I'm not starting to have PTSD._"

Much to the amnesiac's dismay he saw that the Salamance had a beautiful ornate gem around its neck.

The last match began and quickly Victor wasted no time in using his mega ring to bring out mega Salamance.

Anto quickly ordered Super Nut to head back into the air among the floating rocks for at least a better chance of coverage.

"Use Flamethrower!" Victor cried out as the newly evolved Mega Salamance nimbly avoided the boulders and went close enough to Super Nut to unleash a devastating fire attack that was meant to do damage that was four times the damage.

If it was any other Pokémon, a four times effective hit by a power boosted mega would have injured it for sure if not knock it out cold. However, Super Nut was one of Anto's most defensive Pokémon for a reason. It used Protect to nullify the fire surrounding it and the rock it was on.

The bad part was that the situation had now switched. Anto was in the defensive with a Pokémon with a forcefield and all Victor had to do was continue the pressure.

Super Nut quickly realized his shield was going to fade, but Anto gave him a plan and while the shield was still up. The super hero quickly went under the belly of the boulder he was on and let the forcefield drop. The fire hit the boulder, but it was hitting the side the steel type was not on. The boulder was heating up quickly, but Super Nut then pushed the boulder to fly right at Mega Salamance, forcing the Mega to stop breathing fire on it and get out of the way.

Victor and his Pokémon tried to look for the Steel Type, but it was much harder than they both anticipated. Super Nut was swinging around unpredictably, from one place to another before either of his opponents could get a solid half second of looking at him.

The Kalos participant knew that this was getting him nowhere and quickly knew he had to get rid off all these boulders quickly.

In under a few seconds, Mega Salamance unleashed an ear splitting roar towards the sky as a large majority of boulder started shattering.

Anto told Super Nut to bring back the Stealth Rocks, but he quickly found out that Mega Salamance was destroying them quicker than Super Nut could set it up.

One of the Hyper Voices caught the moving Pokémon and blasted him away towards a big rock. Mega Salamance saw his chance and quickly fired another Flamethrower blast at the downed Pokémon. That wasn't enough as Super Nut was still conscious to quickly launch his clamp to another clamp and swing away before the fire consumed him.

Anto's mind started racing. How could he fight against something like this?! There was no chance to attack with Salamance hovering above the boulders and destroying them as quickly as possible and he keeps having a safe distance firing Hyper Voice and Flam…ethrow…

Wait.

What exactly happens to the rocks? When flamethrower hits, the rocks heat up. But when Hyper Voice is launched, the rocks shatter and fall.

…

Anto's eyes brightened as he just recalled something that happened to him in this journey that could work.

Quickly he told Super Nut his plan and the Super hero valiantly saluted before creating as many Stealth Rocks as he could.

Victor knew something was up and he locked eyes with Anto. The younger teen looked back at him for one second… then he smiled.

"Mega Salamance, he's up to something! Hit the Ferrothron with a Hyper Voice!" Victor cried out in hurry.

Who knew what that kid was going to pull!?

The dragon mega unleashed a wide spread attack aiming to where he last saw the Unova native and roared with all of its mighty lungs could muster.

Anto's eyes lit up valiantly as he threw his hand out. "_NOW!_"

The command was heard and Super Nut jumped out behind a floating boulder and threw a small green rock he had tied on one of his vines before shooting it like a sling shot right at Mega Salamance.

The rock splintered into small pieces under the wind boosted attack, but at the speed it was launched, a tiny portion of the broken rock got thrown right into Mega Salamance's throat, causing the Pokémon to quickly stop his attack and cough up a lot.

"WHAT!?" Victor looked up to his choking Pokémon.

Suddenly, one of Super Nut's vines quickly coiled around the Mega Salamance and then constricted him all over, including around the mouth. Everyone looked towards Super Nut before he jumped into the air—then started spinning!

Like a fisherman reeling in a prey, Mega Salamance was pulled right into Super Nut who had his vines stretched around him like a ball of yarn.

Anto punched the air excitedly. "_Steel Carousel!_"

Victor looked back down at Anto before realizing that Super nut was spinning again. This time, he was spinning faster and faster with Mega Salamance slowly being stretched out by the vine. It was like a reverse Yo-Yo where the string was moving outward instead of the actual toy! Super Nut spun faster and faster making the Mega Slamance feel crushed at the increasing speed and length much like how some astronauts go through a spinning G-Force Machine in preparation to go to space.

While Super nut's vine was extending and spinning, the Ferrothorn made sure that his opponent was hitting stray boulders as it made its many round trips.

In one mighty flick— Super Nut shot Mega Slamance right towards the ground, shaking the ground once more and adding another giant crater among the battle field.

The smoke filled the arena, and Super Nut landed on a nearby Stealth Rock harmlessly floating around the arena.

All was quiet for a moment. No one knew if an attack like that was enough to take down a Mega Pokémon, even though it looked very powerful.

Out of the dust… a foot came out.

Mega Slamance slowly came out of the dust and looked up towards Ferrothron.

Anto dropped his mouth while Victor smiled with pride.

The Mega Salamance narrowed his eyes at Super Nut.

Then he collapsed into the ground.

…

…

…

"WE HAVE A WINNER!" Guyver shouted out to the skies, breaking the silence. No sooner as it was broken the crowds roared into thunderous applause.

"WHOOO! GO ANTO! ATTA BOY!" Mr. Baker and his daughter were cheering out wildly for the boy as was in a different area, Benga, Jamie, and even Tiana were cheering.

"**And thus the day has once again been saved! By Super Nut!**" The cape wearing Pokémon dramatically monologue as he waved to the audience.

"_Amazing job Super Nut!_" The caped crusader looked down to see his younger trainer beneath him and jumped right towards him.

Anto, who was so ecstatic opened up his arms and caught the steel type before giving it a big hug—

"_OH GOD YOU HAVE SPIKE I FORGOT!_" Anto tried to let go in pain, but he realized that Super Nut was hugging him back and not recalling he was poking him with spikes. "_You can let go now, Super Nut! Come on! Let go-oooH! Ow! Ow!_"

"**Non-sense! A heroic hug is always welcomed! No need to be shy!**" The oval shaped Pokémon mis-assumed and hugged tighter, causing the boy to fall and struggled to push his Pokémon off him.

"Hahaha! I can't believe I just lost to you!" Anto looked over to see Victor chuckling at the sight.

Eventually, Anto struggled to reach for his Ultra Ball and recall the super Hero off from piercing his flesh again. Victor sighed at the sighing young teen and offered him a hand. Anto saw this and took it which allowed Victor to pull him up and properly shake his hand.

"Last time, I scored 4th place in the Kalos League. This time the 8th, but the difference is between then and now: I don't feel as frustrated as I did even though I scored lower," He smiled and placed another hand on the boy's shoulder. "Kid—no, Anto. You are one of the most fun battles I've had in a long time. Don't lose that." He winked at the end.

Anto didn't understand what he meant, but Victor then raised his hand up for the audience to cheer louder and the older teen bowed in front of them all with Anto.

"What a wonderful battle and two great sportsmen, ladies and gentlemen!" Guyver called out for the audience and the people watching all over the world to hear. "Let's give them another round of applause!"

The crowd was all too eager to comply as the two waved again.

In the audience, someone hidden in plain sight stared at the boy. "… Hmm, the host seems to be doing satisfactory. Yet, he is very unconventional to the point of being unpredictable. I've seen what I need. I'll inform Subject One of my report later…"

[Later.]

"Anto!"

The young boy turned towards his friends when Tiana screamed out his name. However, Nurse Joy quickly told him that his Pokémon were all healed up.

His friends caught up to him and congratulated him for making the top four.

"_Tiana? Aren't you going to go visit Victor?_" The brown eyed boy asked.

The stylish girl reassured him. "It's alright. I can tell him later. But that was amazing how you defeated Mega Salamance even though you couldn't use Synergy Burst! How did you know that rock thing would work?"

"_Funny you should mention that…_" The boy rubbed the back of his head.

"It happened to you, didn't it?" Wes asked, making the boy sigh.

"_Well… I accidentally swallowed a Cheery Blossom leaf and it tasted nasty. Why do they even call it that if it doesn't taste like cherry!?_"

"Those trees are what more western oriented people call them. They have a different name where they usually come from." The group of friends looked over to seem Candela and Misoka walking over to them.

"Oh hey guys!" Benga waved. "Are you back from your family meeting?"

The silver haired girl bowed. "My family Dojo is safe thanks to Anto, and we have just watched your most recent battle. You fought amazingly." Misoka spoke up.

Candela gave the boy a thumbs up. "Yeah! Say, how do you feel about joining Team Valor? Your Pokémon could learn how to become even stronger!" The Team Valor leader asked.

From afar, Victor sighed as he watched Anto and his friends all talk and have fun.

"Yeesh, the moment I lose, I suddenly am chopped liver."

"Hmmm I won't deny that." Victor turned his head with a nervous smile towards the girl who just said that.

"Hey Trinity! What's up Babe?" The Kalosian greeted his girlfriend.

"Oh, nothing. I beat a powerful trainer named Sebastian Wong, and unfortunately no one I knew was watching my battle." She folded her arms and slowly turned her gaze towards Anto who was suspiciously close to Tiana.

"Come on, Tri, don't go back to the dark side just because your sister seems to have a crush on the competition."

"The only crush I'll allow is when he's under my boot slowly begging for mercy." She spoke in a deadly tone.

"You do realize he's under-aged right?" Victor quipped even though he knew there was no kinkiness in that sentence, only the undying need to hurt the poor kid.

"I was hoping to battle you, but it looks I'm the only one left who isn't over 15." Trinity spoke up, catching her boyfriend's attention.

Victor turned to her. "What?"

"The battles results for the other two matches came in. For the Semi Finals there is that kid, me, a kid named Cheren, and a Kid named Black. And all of them are under 15."

"Well that's weird. I never expected some of the youngest contestants to make it up here." Victor mused.

"… Victor, you take Tiana out of here as soon as possible." Tirinty suddenly said.

Victor sighed. "Look, I know you two haven't seen eye to… eye…" He turned to her but he saw his girlfriend's eyes were dead serious.

"I recently saw a video of the Cheren kid when he battled Bianca, his child hood friend. Something was wrong with that battle, victor. The girl, Bianca was asking the entire battle what was wrong with Cheren as if she didn't recognize him. Not to mention I've been seeing some shady looking people more and more around the outskirts of the tournament these past few days. Something is going down, and I need Tiana to be safe."

"What is going on?" Victor asked.

"I don't know, but we might need some help." Trinity admitted before looking towards Anto.

She never had a good feeling whenever she looked at the boy. In fact, she couldn't help how bad her instincts were screaming how… wrong… the boy was to her. She did have some powers of Aura, being capable of seeing someone's soul.

Anto's soul… there was just something wrong about it that she couldn't explain.

Hopefully it was all in her head.

"Oh who am I bloody kidding?"

**[Author notes}**

**Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the characters, Trinity, Victor, and Tiana! All owned by my good friend MangoLimePie, who hasn't written any stories in a while, but they're still pretty fun to read.**

**I hope you enjoyed the battle. It's one of a few more 6 on 6 battles that are coming and soon I'm excited for the finally of this Pokémon League Arc.**

**Also, the next chapter is my 50****th**** chapter! Whoo! Ooh I can't wait till you all see the next few chapters, all the formal battling can be put on hold while the adventure can continue!**

**See ya all real soon! Thanks for reading!**


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